Being the technical guy that I am, and asking all the questions that I do, an interesting development yesterday.
First off, when I contacted Dan at Viper Specialty to discuss what he can do, he was adamant that any coating removal be by soda blast, not aluminum oxide blast. I did not ask why, as I trust Dan.
When I talked to Joseph - viperv10 - he said his stripping process is an ultrasonic bath followed by the oxide blast as needed. I asked him about the point that Dan made, and no real ideas to need to do anything different came about.
So yesterday I get a phone call from a very well liked and respected vendor at this site (he did not want to post his comments) and the entire gist was DO NOT abrasive blast your intake. You'll never get all of the grit out even with the best masking in the world, and guess where all the grit goes from there? So now what Dan at V'Spec said makes sense. After the soda blast, you wash the intake in water and bingo ("****" to Tom), no blasting residue.
You might ask now why I just don't have Dan at V'Spec do my parts for me. He prefers the darker hammertone type colors that hide defects better. I want bright ass Viper red. So my mission here has been to find someone that is comfortable with the red and the defect problems (gassing), and will also mask the logos on the valve covers. This has actually been more difficult than it seems to find that person.
Anyway, Joseph - viperv10 - offered a great price - $300 - to strip and coat the intake and valve covers. We have some soda blast outfits here in the Fort Worth area that I'm going to contact Monday to see if they can strip the intake. That may be the route I'll take.
Finally, I did hear back from JMB Performance. Their price was like $525 or so for the 3 pieces. I have not been in further touch with them to discuss their stripping process, although they did clarify they work well with the valves covers as far as defect management goes.