Our house was built 20 plus years ago. This weekend, I noticed one of our
bathroom faucets were loose. I took off the handle and trim piece, and
saw a pile of rust chunks and dust. The faucets are Price Pfister
Widespread. It appears the plumber used pot metal (?) nuts on the faucets
instead of brass.

Now, the problem is that for the most part, the nuts just crumble in your
hand, but the rust is stuck to the threads, or, the nut is just frozen on
the faucet body. No amount of WD40, tapping, trying to unscrew will get
the rust off without messing up the threads. I also tried using a thin
flat blade screw driver to clean the threads. I doubt that heating the
thread will do much good either, although I have not tried that (I don't
have a tourch at present). I also thought of a die, but since the rusted
pot metal is harder than the brass body, I thought that this method would
mess up the threads.

I hate the idea of buying new faucet bodies since they go for $40 a pop.
I bought 4 to replace the ones in the master bathroom, but I still have 6
others with the same problem, and I havent even looked at the bath tubs
or showers yet.

Going back to the plumber (I do know who the company is) after 20 years
in not going to accomplish anything, I'm sure.

So, does anyone have any great ideas on how to get the rust out of the
threads?

Thanks.

Dave