straight forward, remove nut, top tree, then castellated nut and it drops to the floor.

Use a paint stripper to get the clear coat off before you do any sanding or buffing.  Then start with a 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper on any rough spots or nicks.  Then go to 600 and 800, and sanding with water will help the sandpaper work longer.  After you have it all smooth and the scratches gone, then it is time to polish or buff.  The wheels and buffs that you use on a drill will work but is a little slow as the drill speed is too low.  If you have an air drill or air grinder the rpm is higher and the work will go faster.  The 6" buffing wheels will work on on a small 1/2 HP bench grinder, the larger wheels take more HP but work really fast.

If you can find a local buffer, you might get them polished for about $ 40 and it will save you a whole bunch of time.