well, all the factory yamaha's i've seen had the paint stripped from the swingarms. in fact, early on - with henry's bike - it looked like they were even damascening them, which was veeerrry sano. i imagaine sfo knows, but for the rest of youse, damascening is where they create the little circular swirls so the the surface of the metal looks like fish scales. it's a hot rod thing.
anyhow, the best way i have found to strip 'em is to take the swingarm off and bead blast using medium glass beads. first, i remove all the attachments, then i stuff wads of paper shop towels into the pivot bearings. next, i use electrical tape to cover the ends of the pivots. if you do this right, it will save you having to wash the bearings out afterwards. however, if you get done and you feel grit in the works, you have no choice. anyway, the final step after all the paint is gone is to lightly wet sand the arms with 300 grit sandpaper. a scotch wheel can be used in the tight areas, but i prefer the "linear" brushed look everywhere else. the whole job takes me about 2 hours before the swingarm is ready to go back on.
wp.