Step 1

Yesterday we began the process of fixing up the bike.

We figured starting with something we knew how to do would be an excellent beginning--I know how to remove bike wheels, I have a ratchet set (thank you, father-in-law!) and know how to use it, and I've googled enough to know that tinfoil, possibly dipped in a touch of vinegar, is a good tool to polish chrome (e.g. here).  Plus, we do have some experience scrubbing things in general, living in the world without Rosie the Robot as we do.

So, off came the front wheel and away we went.

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As you can see, it started off looking pretty grungy--remarkably true (in the tire shape-wonkiness way of meaning) but still exceedingly grungy:

A little close-up of the grunge (try to ignore the knobby knees):

Started by putting the kid to work with a toothbrush and some sudsy water (we rinsed well after--I'd read somewhere that dish detergent can leave corrosive salts if you don't--not sure if that's really true since my sink and dishes look pretty fine, but why take the chance?).

When A was little she used to pretend to be Cinderella a lot; the picture kind of makes it look like I'm putting her at it for real, poor dear, but at least she gets a bike out of it:

And, Cinderella does good work (which involved more back end of toothbrush scraping at crud than actual success with the bristles):

But really, the aluminum foil was by far the best tool for this--could be torn into small pieces to get in tight places and really did fast work on the gunk, leaving a lovely shine.  Occasionally we dipped it in vinegar to see if it worked better, but honestly I'm not convinced the vinegar really improved anything beyond plain water or soapy water and the foil (ETA--nope, not really--A was working on it again today and noticed it was much, much easier to get it looking nice with the vinegar--guess I had enough vinegar already on things that I was good to go by the time I tried it without):

And, ta-da--finished product with some grunge for comparison:

Oooooh--shiny!  And I have to say, I think it looks very nice.

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Next step will (most likely) be the rear wheel clean up, which, especially with the hub, can look pretty spectacular all shined up (e.g. here).

But despite Sheldon Brown's fine (and apparently famous in an internet old-bike community kind of way) texts on internal 3-speed hubs (e.g. here), to be honest, I do better seeing things done and I'm still a bit leery about taking off the wheel without having to detach the hub from the cable (i.e. instead separating the wheel from the hub), or however I'll need to get it done.  (ETA: those of you who know anything about them can stop laughing or crying, whichever--after I got another look at it I saw how impossible that really was (or at least how much more work that would have made for me)--no worries, I did discover the right way to do it before I took action!) Can't put it off forever, or can but shouldn't, so I will be biting that particular bullet soon.

Will it be simple and successful or a spectacular fail?  Stay tuned!