I took several large boxes to the local plating shop last month and what I got back was shocking. I could kiss these parts, they are so beautiful. I think my wife is getting a little jealous.  Most advice I saw was to bead blast and polish prior to taking to the plater. When I called the shop they said to bring it the way it is and I would be happy with the result. So I loaded up the car with boxes of rusty, crusty, oldy, moldy, dirty, greasy bits and pieces... Pretty much every bare metal piece on the car, plus some spares. $240 for everything, well worth it in my opinion.  I'm glad I stopped trying to do the plating on my own. Just getting the parts clean was beginning to be a nightmare.  The price was worth having the parts cleaned alone.  The bright, shiny coating is a bonus and will make things look great when they are all back together.

Be aware, aluminum will disintegrate in an acid bath.  I was missing a few little pieces when everything came back, and realized they were aluminum.  Oh well, lesson learned.

Shout out to Duris Electroplating in Springville, UT.  They do great work and are very friendly and easy to deal with.

Here are a couple of before pics:

Here are the finished parts...

One thing that I highly recommend is take tons of pictures and document everything VERY well as you are taking things apart.  Then, take more pictures and document some more.  You can see I made notes on the sizes of some of the bolts.  Realoem is a great resource, but is not 100% complete with all hardware sizes.