I've cleaned EVERY bolt, nut & washer on my car. If you're plating, they need to be absolutely clean - even beyond removing the rust. If you're painting, it's not as critical.
A tumbler and some phosphoric acid is the best combination I've come up with. Phosphoric will not attack the good metal or convert the rust which is undesirable if you plate. Muriatic will embrittle grade 8 bolts and spring steel. I was able to break some otherwise nice looking bbell washers with my fingers after leaving them in muriatic too long!
If you're plating after that, I'd recommend bead blasting in addition. It's much less time consuming to tumble and then bead blast then it is to go straight to bead blasting.
John
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1967 Firebird Convertible Factory 400/4spd
Now 462/5spd Fuel Injected
http://1967firebird.atwebpages.com/
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