I did the muriatic acid bath in a 15 gallon water to 1 gallon acid mixture yesterday. I did have a few spots look a little pink, particularly the rods that hold the tops and bottoms together. However, this is what they look like this morning after staying outside last night (pieces are in the same order as the picture above):
You can see the one that was cleaned with the wire wheel is still more clean, but it doesn't look as clean as it did. There are a couple of spots of petrified cork from the gaskets that I'm going to get my Dremel out and grind off. They're too small for the wire wheel's to get to and they need to come off to prevent gasket issues down the road. For reference sake, this is what the strainers looked like just before I pulled them from the boat:
In the end, I'm not concerned about how long they look shiny and bronze. I just want to minimize the corrosion and make sure I've arrested what corrosion I can. My port rudder post is my real concern and cleaning up the Perko strainers was a dress rehearsal for getting into this issue:
I couldn't really see the extent of the patina on this rudder post until I had the deck off and really saw it in a 360 degree view for the first time. I am concerned that my port rudder looks worse than my starboard as I think some of the patina is electrolysis driven corrosion. I'm hoping the rudder post corrosion is all external. I have not had any leakage from my rudder posts either, which I think would have happened if the surface the packing gland material pushes up against was pitted.
I'll know once I get them off.