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addict, what color are the side plates and handle knob on that Squidder? Black, brownish-red, or bright red, and is the handle knob hard torpedo shaped plastic or the new softer material? That'll give me an idea of its age.
The hollow feeling could be for a lot of reasons. The bearings could be shot for one thing. The old plastic spools also give ya a different feel than the newer aluminum ones. When the spool moves from side to side, is that when you get that hollow feeling?
If yours is an older Squidder, say, pre-80s, it probably has the old leather and raw brass drag washers. Sounds like it from the way you describe how it's working---free-spool or tight-lock with nothing in between. Have them replaced with the new HT-100 and chromed brass washers.
You could polish the plastic plates with car wax. If any green corrosion shows on the frame, the reel foot or the spacer bars, you can clean it off with Flitz or some other metal polish, but the surface will remain pitted after you wipe off the green gunk. Nothing you can do about the pits short of replacing those parts---and it's not worth it.
I have 4 Squidders ranging from the late 1940s up to the mid-1990s. They started off with black plates, kept them until the 60s when they went to reddish brown, went to brighter red in the late 70s or early 80s, and went back to black in 1990 or thereabouts.
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