It sounds like oxidation of the aluminium most likely due to road salt.
Depending on how deep this has gone depends on what coating you can use, if its only very mild pitting then powder coating will cover this, if its deeper then go with the painting as the pits can be filled or heavy high build primed and flatted back.
I would get the part fine aluminium oxide blasted to remove the old coating and oxidation.
At work we then use deoxidine to clean and get rid of surface oxidation after blasting then use alochrome to provide an anti oxidation coating and also helps the primer we use to key to the substrate, you could then high build prime, this will fill in the pits and then flat back smooth, paint and clearcoat in the desired colour. it may seem a long prosses but well worth it if you are keeping the bike and using it all year round.
this is what i have done with the tail tidy i made and some other aluminium parts. Hope this helps, feel free to pm if you need help
