carb cleaner and brake cleaner are kind of the same thing really, only i use brake cleaner as its a quid from the local pound shop lol. obviously im talking just for cleaning shit up, dont go using brake cleaner in carbs just incase, but for cleaning an inlet, its what i did and it worked fine

i did mine without the need for blasting and it came up just as good as all my other parts i did have blasted previously. so long as its cleaned thoroughly and etch primed, the finish will be nigh on identical