Stripping paint and refinishing/repainting/powdercoating a bike

Ives, is that Ribble just polished or is it lacquered afterwards?
If it is, I'd like to know what with.
Or do you just keep polishing it?

polished. No laquer.

I was told all sorts of scare stories about stripping an alu frame and about how fast it would oxidise and how one would have to polish it every few days to stop it going dull grey.

All of these proved to be untrue.
I polished mine after I stripped it and that was 3 months ago and I haven't touched it since. It still looks as good as the day I polished it. No dulling or oxidisation at all, that I can see.