Rust and Pitting on Nickel Plating
I've been struggling with my rusty 'new' sewing machines. I had thought the shiny parts were chrome plated and read on car restoration forums to use wadded up aluminum foil very lightly with water and rub until it formed a paste (which it actually did fairly quickly). They said that since the aluminum was a softer metal, it wouldn't scratch chrome and that there was an electrolytic reaction that bonded the aluminum to the rust and would break down the rust, then make a fine paste that would polish the metal. It actually does take off much of the rust, but when I looked at the photo below, I see a lot of fine scratches. And, the metal is still pitted. I tried polishing another piece with a dremel buffing wheel and jeweler's rouge after cleaning off the big surface rust, but that didn't seem to do anything to help the pitting either.
I understand now that the shiny finish is nickel on sewing machine parts, not chrome, so I wonder whether the foil was a very bad idea - or whether my pieces are just too rusted to fix.
Someone recommended just using very fine metal sandpaper (1500 to 2000) and polishing what was there as best I can. I've only found 1200 and I'm hesitant to do anything that will do more damage.
Help?
[ATTACH=CONFIG]457295[/ATTACH]Before and after the aluminum foil - see lots of scratches. (I only tried this on what I thought was chrome, not on any painted parts.)