Hi,
Noisy and time consuming i'm afraid. My favourite method was polycarbide stripping wheels on an angle grinder, but the cost soon mounts up as does guilt because of the noise. I struck a deal with a body shop to sandblast some of the larger panels, but if you do this, make sure they have experience of blasting classic cars. Too aggressive blasting can warp/ overheat and wreck panels easily - shop around.
If you fancy something a little different and you have a huge compressor, try googling 'diy soda blaster'. I've cleaned small metal parts this way, its messy but dissolves with water afterwards. Without big kit this is likley to be unworkable other than for carbs and detailing etc but for small bits its unbeatable as there is no errosion of the surface. Useless on rust though.
For treating rusty parts i really like
http://www.bilthamber.com/corrosion-treatments/deox-c its a powder, makes about 20 lites of solution and an overnight soak will do wonders even on heavy rust. Its biodegadeable and non toxic. I know its sucking eggs, but most parts are cheap, so dont try to salvage the bits that do important things, unless you're sure its only superficial. Also if you take paint off have a plan in place to get it protected asap, otherwise your efforts could be wasted.
Good luck and do a sense check to decide if you actually need to get back to the metal in the first place.
