that looks fantastic  

well worth all your hard work mate  

as far as the rust goes it needs a clear coat over it as soon as it's cleaned. I clear coated the LAH lock down bar after I removed all the rust (and zinc plating) and it has been several months and still no rust.
I wipe it over with thinners first to make sure there are no contaminates on the surface before clear coating. Just make sure you don' chip / scratch any clear coat off when assembling or else the rust will start where the raw metal has been exposed.