Thanks for the encouragement I'm sure taking it apart won't be too bad, and like you said, my local shop can help if I get stuck putting it back.

As for the painting, I definitely don't mind if I need to strip all the old paint off but it seems like that can be kind of a pain in the butt with an aluminum frame, right? And there's special paint strippers and primers for aluminum right? Any advice on that kind of stuff?
Thanks!