My latches are being restored by Dynamic Renovation along with most of my suspension hardware (nuts/bolts).

I'm sure by soaking them overnight, any coatings are gone. Look at the previos pic. with the door pulls and lock knob rods. A side by side comparison of the door pulls isn't the greatest, but it did remove the plating.

If you soaked for ... say...20-30 minutes, you'd probably be OK. I have a shifter mechanism thats in with my parts now (in for about 3 hours) and it is just now starting to become clean.

My plan is to clean alot of these parts up and then send them off to a plater. Mainly the stuff that gets seen.