I'm looking for ways to refubish some of the misc. hardware on my truck. As with any old vehicle, most of the nuts & bolts are rusty or covered with 5 layers of old paint. I'll just buy new hardware for standard nuts, bolts washers etc, but there's lots of oddball stuff I'll need to keep.

I'm thinking of using something like the vibrator/tumbler from Harbor Freight for initial cleanup, then chasing the threads with a tap/die.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=93252

To get some sort of protective coating, I've found a zinc plating kit from Caswell.

http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/zinc.htm

This along with a power supply is gonna run $250 or more.

Who else has done this? Is there a better/cheaper way to go?