Re-coating (painting?) Barient winches

[Seafarer24]

I am rehabbing a salvaged pair of Barient 36 2-speed Self-Tailing winches. This one was the worst of the pair, so I started with it.

While the internals soaked in a bucket of penetrating fluid, I put the base, drum, top, stripper, and nut in a bucket of vinegar... for about a week. Predictably, they came out pink. Surprisingly, this surface coating of redeposited copper is not coming off, even with an SOS scrub that proved effective on other parts in the past. Even Brasso had little effect.

Ideally, someone knows a way to give these parts a uniform bronze luster. I'd settle for a durable painted surface like they originally had for the past 20-30 years, if anyone knows which paint was used by the factory.

[Schooner Chandlery]

Those should be bronze not copper. The vinegar can remove the tin and zinc from bronze and brass alloys--ruining them essentially. Hopefully you just ruined the top surface. Bronze should not be chemically...um...cleaned like that. Very harsh.

They did have them originally in chrome and copper is often used as the first plating material before a second material like nickel or chrome can be added. Suggest that you really rub on a single spot to get down to the bronze (it will be more yellow than red) to make sure they were bronze to start with and/or you did not ruin the bronze thru-and-thru. There was a line of anodized aluminium ones -- I've only seen them in a brownish gray color though.

You could just take them to a plating company to have them re-plated, as well.

[Sailmonkey]

These winches never had a painted surface. You need to hit them with a polishing wheel and some compound to see if they're salvageable for a bright finish. Otherwise, put them together and let the drums turn a natural green (if they're still able). Hopefully the acid bath didn't soften the gear teeth on the inside of the drum.

[Seafarer24]

Yes, they are bronze, but when corrosion is removed with vinegar, the copper tends to re-deposit on the surface as a bright pink coating that usually comes off with a light scouring.

All of the internals have been removed. I am trying to find a way to clean the grease / mud off of everything and get it back to bare metal before re-greasing and oiling them.

Would a typical water-based degreaser work for cleaning the internals? I know some people have used diesel fuel or kerosene, but those are both oily as well.

If they weren't painted, then what was the thin black coating that was flaking off in some locations and vehemently adhered in others?

These do no appear to have been chromed originally. Should texture be added to the drum before having them chromed? A local machine shop could likely knurl the gripping surface for me.