Thought I'd throw out my 2 cents here just because we're discussing the topic again (and it is an important topic.)
For cleaning/restoring a drum I use the following process:
Take off the hoops and clean them first with a rag and WD-40. This removes regular dirt/dust/f*ing cat hair/etc. WD-40 can take away some rusty spots with a bit more effort, but I just give it a once over to clean the debris away so I can assess how bad the rust and crud situation on the hoop is. If there are just a few surface rust spots, a metal polish, like Mr. Metal, will take them out and the hoop will look great. If there are more substantial rust spots I will go over it will 0000 steel wool.
Now, I understand if someone doesn't want to take steel wool to an 80 year old drum. However, for most drums, I've found that 0000 S.W. works fine and doesn't cause any noticable scratching to the hoop. I have used S.W. to clean up a chrome shell, and no longer do, but I think it is fine for hoops. When you think about it, hoops suffer a lot more abuse when playing than shells, so the shell, if chrome, is really the part of the drum that needs to be pristine. It isn't like you look at a drum and say, 'well that hoop is a little scratched up, so I'm gonna pass.' And 99% of people mostly notice the shell and lugs when looking at a drum. I'm not saying dont do the best you can with the hoop, but I dont think it has to be the same level of perfect that we would like our shells and lugs to be. And that is why I think it is ok to use S.W. on hoops. After the steel wool, I go over the hoop with the metal polish or even WD-40 to protect against future rust.
Then I clean both the lugs and shell with metal polish. It takes much, much longer than steel wool, but obviously it wont scratch. I did have one cheap Taiwanese snare that I cleaned up with S.W. that did noticeably scratch to visibly denigrate the chrome. Thankfully it was a cheap, worth nothing snare, but I learned a valuable lesson on that restoration.
The tension rods I clean in Dawn and warm water. I let them soak for 12 hours, 1 day or 2 days depending on how bad they are. Then I scrub and rinse them off under warm running water with a scotchbrite pad. They usually look great at this point, but if they were really bad, you could repeat this process again. If you are still not happy at that point, I would use steel wool on the threads and polish the rest of the rod with metal polish.
As with the hoops, I doubt anyone would look at a drum and say 'look at those tension rods!' So I dont think they need to be imaculate, either, but they should be rust free so they can function and tension evenly to make the drum as playable and tuneable as it can be.
Last thing to mention would be the inserts (just learned they there are called swivelnuts, learn something new everyday!) Like the t-rods, these should be as functional as we can get them. I have found soaking them in WD-40 is a great way to clean them up, then maybe a quick soak in a more diluted Dawn bath. I use 3-in-1 oil when putting the t-rods back in for lubrication and protection of the rod and insert.
I think for 98% of drum restoration work this process will be sufficient and successful. For more rare or sensitive (valuable) drums there may be better or preferred ways of restoring, but I dont think that there has been any kind of consensus regarding safer methods.
Hope this is in some way helpful.
