+1 Keep the chrome. Use the oxalic acid treatment.

Vintage chrome bikes sell for a premium over non-chrome bikes. Why go to the expense of lowering the value of your bike? And to get paint to stick to the chrome, I bet they are going to have to ruin it.

+1 Keep any abrasives away from cleaning chrome. Chrome is applied in a thin layer on bikes. There isn't enough there to sacrifice part of it to clean up.

+1 Although the acid treatment looks like a lot of work, it is not. The acid does all the work for you. Just set it and forget it. I tend to use fairly dilute acid, so I will treat parts for one to two days. The rusty fenders in this picture will be treated for four days.

I am currently treating several bikes myself right now. The pic shows my kiddie pool (I built a dam in it to make it smaller and conserve on oxalic). In the bath right now is a frame, three forks, two old Schwinn cranks, an old fender, and a few other misc parts. In the small container are a headset, quick release, and a few fasteners.

I have five more frames to treat.