vintagemotif

You're not crazy. These vintage machines sew beautifully once they have be cleaned.

While cleaning the machine, only clean the Japan (black areas with the decals) with sewing machine oil so that you don't ruin the decals. Sometimes with the older machine the Japan's clear protective coat has been damaged over the long years; cracks developed in the clear coat. Some cleaning produces will strip that clear coat off leaving you with just the black paint (Japan). That clear coat protects those decals too; so you don't want them ruined. Sewing oil is the safest method to clean up the machine, just takes time.

MUV has some excellent youtube videos showing how to clean a vintage machine, which you can google.

IF you find repairing the veneer to daunting a task, you can always take the treadle out of that cabinet and attach a new wooden top. Numerous folks here have made simple frankentreadles.

There has been one person that posted her project. She took a cheap table top that she picked up from a thrift store for $5. Her husband cut out the area for the machine to sit in. She then lined up the machine/top to the treadle irons. Her work surface space is now much larger than a vintage cabinet. You might want to consider that if you are limited in the number of treadles in the house or if you want a larger work surface area.
Some folks have made different templates to hold a specific machine that then drops into the generic hole in the table top of the treadle. That way you can rotate machines into the one treadle. Example, your Singer 328 and Phoenix in the same treadle table.

Have fun and enjoy treadling!