H81 Bottle stack restoration - cleaning polishing and sealing parts

[Zerbie]

Hey all,

I have a couple more newbie question about restoring an H81 bottle stack. I've disassembled the entire stack and have started to hand scrub, clean & polish the vend cam, screws & nuts, the H clips and the back channel (my channel is not stainless steel as a magnet does stick to it - it looks darn good for its age  - it didn't take much scrubbing to get it to how it looks in the pic). .

1).  Is the manual effort the way most restorations happen or do folks have the parts cleaned (media blasted or chemically stripped)?

2). And then depending on the parts & tolerances allowed for non restricted operation, do folks zinc plate, powder coat, paint and clear coat?

Just wondering if I'm making it way to hard on myself and are there easier ways to get all the stack parts cleaned, sealed and ready for re-assembly?

Thx!