Luckily mine was just dirty. The Chrysler logo was still in good shape. I'd be scared of blasting the tag. I'd probably chemically strip the paint off of it. If you really wanted to blast it, I'd rig up a soda blaster. There are instructions online how to make one out of an air nozzle, some tubing and a box of baking soda. That shouldn't damage the tag.
I think SEM Trim Black would be a good paint for it. It's pretty durable.
Have a good look at the pad before you install the tag. My pad was very thick with foam in the tag area. If I would have just riveted it down, the foam would have compressed and the tag would have distorted. I ended up trimming the foam and vinyl from around the rivet holes and built it back up with a couple washers. There was no foam under the rivets to compress this way.
