Panicking about FW finish... HELP!
 

Alright, so I decided to give my baby a thorough cleaning after replacing her felt oil drip pad (YUCK!). I got my usual dish soap, put a teeny bit on a wet paper towel, then wiped her down. When I wiped it off, there was a cloudy looking residue left behind. Panicking, I scrubbed at it more with the wet paper towel, then the dry. It began to wear off in little patches; it looks brown on the dry paper towel, and I can scrape it off with a finger nail. The finish seems to look fine underneath.

Have I completely ruined the machine's finish? Luckily this happened on the backside of the arm, so I won't see it all the time, but if it's something I need to clean off the poor thing I'd like to do that as soon as possible. :( Hope someone has had this happen to them!

Sounds like you are just washing the dirt and grime of 50 or so years off. Mine was the same way. After a couple of rounds with waterless handsoap I wiped it all down with a wet cloth, dried it and waxed it. Looks far better than it did with the grime on it.

Brynn...in the event that it's the clear coat that is coming off, stop using anything other than sewing machine oil to clean your baby!! If the clear coat is gone, waterless hand cleaner will remove the decals!!

Put a heavy coat of oil on the machine and let it sit a day or two, then rub it off with cotton balls, or pieces of cotton batting, or even a cut up cotton t-shirt. As soon as one piece gets dirty, toss it and get a clean one. It might take more than one application of oil to remove the gunk, but you're safer doing it that way!

Thanks for the great advice, Charlee! I haven't tried to do anything on my vintage machines, partly because I worry about things like this happening.

Laura pointed out this morning on the Vintage thread that it's really important to toss those cotton balls or pads as soon as they show dirty...otherwise you're scrubbing the machine with dirt...and that's gonna scratch! :)

I have one that did the same thing - no finish left on it - I am holding off on the oil - I don't want to have to get that off too. I want to see what Glenn comes up with for a French polishing type finish - he says he will do a tutorial sometime soon - meanwhile my cleaned up little FW is waiting.

Hubby finished one that we recently purchased that had that awlful cloudy finish and after he was done - several coats later - it looks absolutely beautiful. He rebuilds and finishes cars and makes the wood enclosures for (grandfather) clocks.

He used (Dupont) Extra Fine Lacquer Polishing Compound White, first - it may still look dull when you take it off, but it takes any imprefections out. Then he put Liquid Glass car polishing wax over that. Both of these are sold at Car supply places like Pep Boys. (PS - The liquid glass is fantastic for bathroom mirrors too, and it can also be bought from a place like Ace hardware, etc.). Now my new baby looks like she was just made - absolutely shiny and beautiful.


Karen

What machine did he use this on? Could you show a picture?

Me too. I want to see the repolished sewing machine.

I am not good at taking photos but here goes. I put the machine infront of a window and on 2 of them you can actually see the reflection of the tree outside, which was about 15 feet away from window. But I loved the reflection on the machine from it. The machines are extremely shiny - just hard to take a photo of with the shine, in person the tree reflection is glossy.
Hubby has cleaned/polished 2 of my featherweights, so far, this nice and clean. He wants to take the 3rd one completely apart and redo it basically from the ground up.
Karen