Mickey2

You don't need to fully disasseble anything on this machine, maybe in exceptional cases with lots of rust and grime. Your machine doesn't look too bad at all. Slide the bobbin cover completely off, there is a lift up lever that lifts up and towards you, it releases the bobbin case. It will come out with a bit of turning and tweaking the hand wheel. You will reach all parts by poking from top, side and bottom. Unscrew the needle plate as well. You might have to take the hand wheel off to get it properly lubricated, it needs a good amount of oil and it's hard to get enough oil to the outer parts. If you do, smear a good layer of oil on the turning rod as well as the inner of the hand wheel.

For cleaning, use oil, spray can oils (carefully), cotton swabs, tooth picks, rags, ect. Put some kitchen paper under the machine and add oil to all the oil points. You can polish up the presser and needle bar with the right kind of polish (like QuickGlo). Be gentle on the finish, if it is in relatively good condition you can polish it with resin type car polish (liquid types), it lifts up dirt, shine, and leaves a protective film. Some use renaissance wax on their machines. The thin oils and degreasers can cause hickups, so make sure you get a good quality oil reach iinners of joints, hinges and turning parts. Make sure you leave the red felt bit and don't damage it, it's an oil wick for the race and hook.

Any chips or damage in the lacquer you repair by simple touch ups. you can do it simply with nail polish, or you can do it more thoroughly with filling in the missing spot, sand down, finish with the finest grade sanding paper that leaves a shine. A repair likethat can be flawless and invisible.

You can't really test sew this machine until you have a bottm case for it, there are tutorials on how to make your own on the web, and various places to buy simple and even luxury version of them. The original Singer wooden cases were of quite high quality and nicely made. MAke s

For flaky shellac coating take a look at the sticky thread on top of this forum, on repairing japanning. I'm not sure how to tackle that my self.