I have some surface rust and had paint missing from mine too, but there was no layering of the rust and it did not cover the whole suspension arms. It was mostly on the welds. I bead blasted and painted one side, and used spray on "dupli color rust fix" on the other, as a test to see how well the latter works.

You might want to try "kroil" from kanolabs.com. When I bought mine they had a "sample" deal going on where you can buy a single container of one product and get another item free. The one to get is the tall can of "aero kroil." The PB blaster is still good for washing oily parts but after trying this stuff I will never use the blaster on a fastener again.