Love all the suggestions! Looks like my coworker is learning to sandblast / powder coat paint, and I have no desire to sand this thing myself. I'm going to attempt to remove the lower burr carrier with long screws and a hair dryer... and then the motor via an evening with my oven.

Wish me luck!

In the meantime, which parts should I replace? I've heard maybe the motor bearing?

Anyone know if the SJ and Major have the same motor bearing part?

And I'll need to replace the chute gasket.

What else everyone? Anyone want to weigh in on the burr discussion? I'm debating using it as a dedicated espresso grinder with SSP HUs (thinking of this as an office machine since its too large for the wife to accept in the kitchen), but open to the new 83mm Lab Sweet for its ability to do both.

Chris,
I recently refurbished two very old Mazzer grinders, a Major and a Super Jolly.
I also used the Daniel Wong doserless kit with a Giotto blower on the Major. Works just fine and retention is very low!
To keep ground coffee from being sprayed everywhere, I use a tall Eureka dosing cup to contain the ground coffee. RDT helps also!
To baseline, I installed new set of Mazzer 251A burrs and have a set of Boyt Compac K8 burrs to try out later. I did not have to change my bearings as they were not bad, but I checked the grinders alignment and adjusted it, (not that bad to begin with).

Cuprajake wrote:Use an orbital sander, a grinder will damage the body it's only aluminium..

There is a upol product called raptor which will give a very OEM finish if you add 5-10% thinner, it's a bedliner product so very hard wearing.

Of course using a "grinder" with a grinding wheel attached will do a lot of damage to the body...even if it were made of harder metal than aluminum. But a hand-held angle grinder with a wire wheel can be used to remove paint from aluminum without ruining the surface. You just need to avoid being too aggressive while doing the job.