Thanks, all - lots of great info here!

Evaporust has become my go-to solution most of the time, especially for small parts. I've never had it do any damage to chrome but it will removed zinc or cad plating. I just pulled two old forged chrome stems from a can of Evaporust, they were solid brown, my thought was that they were likely to far gone to save but I had a batch in a mayo jar for something else so I stuck both of them top down in the jar over night, to my surprise, both stems came out looking fantastic.

For rust removal by hand, I use a mix of bronze wool, brass tooth brushes, and steel wood. I only use steel wool with oil or soap.
For steel rims, I use hydroflouric acid wire wheel cleaner, along with a soapy piece of steel wool. It makes short work of rusty old chrome wheels but it can't be left on for long. I generally do it over a sink or old plastic tub with a garden hose at hand outdoors.
You just have to work quick, the acid will strip the chrome off of spoke nipples and eat the galvanizing off the spokes pretty fast if you leave it too long. I wet the wheel down, spray the chrome with acid, agitate it a bit with a brass brush or steel wood, and rinse. Usually it only takes one shot. Then they need to be dried and polished quickly to prevent them from flash rusting right away. I only use acid for wheels that are really bad.

If Evaporust was cheaper, I'd likely fill a large tub or parts washer full of it but it would cost far too much to fill a 50 gallon soak tank with the stuff. I've got a 55 gallon parts washer tank in the garage, it would be great to make use of that for something. It was originally used as a transmission dunk tank in a repair shop years ago. Now its a storage bin in my garage.
It would be nice to be able to soak a whole rim or handlebars though. When I checked last, the best price I found was $724 for a 55 gallon barrel of the stuff.
It would save a ton of original parts though.

I assume you are aware of the risks, but in case others are not...

"A serious HF burn at low concentration covering less than 2 percent of your body can kill you. Skin contact, even with diluted HF solutions (< 2 percent) will burn."

--http://www.carwashmag.com/home/article/hydrofluoric-acid-renewed-warnings/908f347a55405ce828a06f52baa5046b.html

Soaking the bolts in Simple Green overnight will do them no harm, and then doing as randyjawa suggests will likely give you happy results.

I soak small parts in Rust-Oleum Rust Dissolver. Does a good job on chrome bits.

Naval Jelly in the pink bottle.

On the Vice Squad we sweat it out of 'em. On the Vise Squad we squeeze it out of 'em.

I think they turned out decently - EvapoRust, brass brush, aluminum foil, then Flitz.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1353cd8503.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d9412deb0b.jpg

They're not irreplaceable. If you're in the US, I'd let all this go for $10 less than what I've got it listed over here because I don't have the arms to match. https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...s-42-52-a.html

Mind you, I made no attempt to cleanup my hardware, but I think it's looking a helluva lot better than what I'm seeing in your pics :D

Personally, for little steel bits I keep a small 3" tall Ball jar around with Evaporust in it to soak stuff. I have a tea strainer screen inside to make removal easy.

I never, ever, ever recommend steel wool, if you have this in your shop to use on metal, replace it with bronze wool. Multiple reasons. Steel wool is made out of - guess what? - steel. Steel rusts, and as you use the product it creates steel dust, which will - guess what? - yep, rust on anything you don't realize it dusted onto. Steel wool is also more abrasive than bronze wool, but it's not necessarily more effective, bronze wool may take 25-50% more time rubbing, but it's going to cause significantly less abrasion, swirl marks etc. Bronze wool is no less available, and it doesn't leave steel dust or fragments laying around. When used with a lubricating agent, you can use bronze wool lightly on rusted paint, removing the rust but not the paint. The ultra-fine scratches can easily be buffed out with a fine buffing compound or simple automotive polishing agent.

For something that small, oxalic acid bath isn't worth it. For exterior surfaces, Naval Jelly is great and gets the job done in 10-minute application intervals.

The brass brushes are great also. I watch out for these 3-brush (nylon, brass, steel) to go on sale for $2-3 at the local auto parts stores and big online retailers. I have a coffee can full of them. They're great for "facing" stuff. Brass one is good on fork crowns and other flat chrome. Nylon one is great for clearing old dry wax out of lugs or used with solvent to clean old grease out of threads and races - I use blue painters tape on the handle of my "dry work" brushes so I don't mix the two purposes up. Steel I rarely ever use, because the wire wheel on my bench grinder has similar bristles and is faster. However, it's good for old bolts and getting rust out of holes in fasteners, cleaning up axle threads.

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