Rose and I drove out to get the lathe today. We took it apart to make it small enough to be able to move it. A tooth brush, some solvent, and lots of scrubbing were used to clean up the bed. I was planning to repaint it. This machine is totally original and this made me change my mind. It is a good example of what one looked like when it came from the factory. This has a lot of value in itself. My plans are to clean it up and keep it as original as possible while I am its custodian.
I love the story of your lathe, I had a similar experiance here in the UK, but I found mine on the back of a lorry ready to be weighed in as scrap. It was rusty & had no motor, but my eyes told me it was worth having, and definately better than not having one at all, so I bought it for "scrap metal" price, £60.
I stripped it down to small enough parts for three strong men to lift, & got it home in the back of my car. Like you, it was out with the toothbrush, wire brush & emery cloth. As I rubbed the rusty (only light surface rust) bed down, I found the maker's name...."Colchester".....possibly the best lathe manufacturers in the UK. There was no serious wear to be found, so I sploshed some blue Hammerite paint on it. It looked like new, but I had no motor until I put the word around. A couple of days later my mate dropped off an industrial potato peeling machine, also destined for scrap. It had the exact motor I needed.
A half-day's work later, using old pulleys & belts that were never thrown away because they might come in handy one day, I had a working lathe. No back-gears & no auto-feed, but for £60 who cares? It's fully tooled now with 3 & 4 jaw chucks & a faceplate & I use it virtually every day. Every time I switch it on, it's like working with an old mate!
The picture shows it on the back of the lorry the day I found it.