Yeah,,,but you know,,this is the part I always liked, because it is where you find all the little things that need fixing or replacing to make em look and operate in like factory condition,!! Makes  you develop a close relationship with "YOUR MACHINE" I expect Thad will do the same,,,., 

OH,,and Thad, don't you dare finish it before I get there with Shameless and Les,,,I got them BOTH to volunteer for a few weeks of "Help"   lol.

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My usual go-to for cleaning patina off machined surfaces is a scotchbrite pad and some light oil.  If it isn't a running surface (ways and such) then I might take a wide blade scraper and take a gentle pass over it (after it's been oiled) to lift off whatever residue has accumulated, then rub out the patina.

For ways, usually the patina and crud exists on the areas where the ways were exposed, as the parked surfaces are well-sealed from atmospheric ingress.  If the crud is REALLY thick, I might use same scraper, or a piece of lexan (think windshield ice scraper, sharpened with belt grinder) to separate the crud, then oil the surface with penetrant, and then a few passes of coarse wool followed by another spritz of penetrant, and wipe with a paper towel.  Just don't use the Scotchbrite pad on machined ways, as it will leave behind silicon carbide or aluminum oxide abrasive dust.

The biggest challenge of re-awakening any machine, is making certain that the leadscrews won't become fouled and jam.  Turn everything by hand many times before putting power drive on, and start slow, if it complains, STOP, back up, and find out why.

You will likely find loose components... like the threaded nut of the table X-Y, it is usually retained by a bolt or two through from the top center of the table.  In some mills, tightening it down snug will take slop out of the travel, but in others, a slight misalignment may mean that the assembly binds.

Another thing that CAN happen with machine tools, is sag.  Let's say someone shut the machine down with the table parked a bit to the left, and there was an indexing head on the far left... over time, the presence of that weight placing overhanging load on the table will cause the iron casting to distort.  It might not be enough to be of consequence in your day-to-day milling, but it may cause the table ways to bind... and if you loosen them to allow it to pass without the bind, you might wind up with some slop.  Smaller, lighter, cheaper machines will experience sag worse than heavier, higher quality machines.  Machines that are stored in locations where temperature varies greatly will sag more than those in constant temp.

IF you've disassembled machine tools before, then fine, but if you haven't, I would suggest you just clean it up really good, lubricate it heavily, and then operate it a little bit, determine what's moving well, and what's sloppy, and where, before pulling it apart.

Why?

Well, NO machine is 'perfect'.  Because of use, it develops a certain amount of wear in certain places, and as it is used, maintainers make adjustments to it to keep it tolerable in the range it's worked most.  When you dismantle it, you obliterate all the adjustment that was done not only to compensate for wear and use, you also nix any original factory setup (shimming, gib tension, etc) and place yourself in a position where you're starting over with an unknown of variable circumstance... at least the factory, when new, had known circumstance.

Don't ask me how I learned this...

   👍👍👍

Now to slide it into "place" so the little lady does not even notice it is "new"

 Glad to hear that it's running and smooth. Congratulations