I spent a year on an ItalVega that was a lot worse off and it came out nice. Mine had been left in a field in Moro Bay California, a real foggy cool beach town. I used many different methods from scraping the rust off to very fine steel wool. None of the rust had entered the bearing races or inside the frame. It is my patina bike and I like the way it looks. You can read about it on my blog. joesvintageroadbikes.wordpress, Rusty Resurection.