Hi there.
I'm a couple of days in front of you at the moment as I stripped all the panels off my chassis last week.
I've sent the chassis off to be dipped, blasted and powdercoated, along with all the wishbones, wing stays, roll bars ect. I toy'd with the idea of doing it myself but the stripping is going to be time consuming and messy and I'm not sure I would be able to achieve the same quality finish as a decent pro powdercoater
before starting the guy I'm using has chopped the bar end stops off where possible to let as much shot and many rivets be free'd then welded back up.
when I was moving the chassis around the sound of rivets rolling around in the rails was rather bad.
I'll spray some cavity wax into the tubes when the chassis is back which will hopefully stop any other rivets rolling around. I know it's highly unlikely you'll hear them but I'll feel better knowing I've done all I can..
good luck with your project. I look forward to seeing the progress