At the very least I would remove the safety/fire control group unless you don't mind leaving the small portion of the lower underneath the selector unpainted.

And yes billt work guns tend to look like that as most are lazy enough not to care about resorting and stripping to keep it looking good.

If the gun is going to be nothing but a safe queen, then painting it might be OK. However, I've found that paint on guns usually winds up looking much like this if the weapon receives a lot of handling. Paint is paint, pure and simple. It wears. It chips. It scratches very easily. And it doesn't touch up very well.

Some of the newer "coatings" like Duracoat, etc. are better. But when you get right down to it, they are nothing more than high tech, epoxy based paint jobs. Another thing is they don't hold up well to cleaning solvents, and stain very easily. I have a friend who had a "sniper rifle" Duracoated. When he got the gun he was very happy with it. From the box it looked fantastic. They really did a nice job. But after just a few trips to the range, along with a few cleaning jobs, the gun quickly started to look like crap. The barrel solvents played he!! with the finish near the muzzle and the breech. The finish on the bolt handle was starting to disappear as well. In short, none of these paint coatings will hold up as good as bluing, be it matte or gloss. Or the black oxide coatings that the Aluminum AR's get treated with.