I'm pretty sure it's steel, not aluminum. Bead-blast and black-oxide might go real nice, though. I'm gonna take mine off to time it. OK, ready... set... go! 26 seconds to pull out pocket-knife, bump three tabs loose, and flip face-plate off. Reinstallation time: 24 seconds; this is just a little more touchy, because you have to align the keypad... See thoughtfix's instructions, pictures, and video, if you want to try it. I do this routinely to clean the screen under the bezel edges. No powering off required, mine was playing music the whole time.