What Have I done...

So I had been having issues with sticky float needles for the past couple of seasons. I had tried cleaning them last winter with carb cleaner, but cleary didn't do a good enough job. They were still sticking and leaking fuel out the overflow in my carb bowls occasionally.

So I had done some reading this winter and saw the Pine-Sol carb cleaning methods. I figured I would give it a shot. What could I lose? All the pictures I saw had the carbs looking great afterwards. So I took apart my bowls, jets etc into separate containers. Put my full carb assembly into one large container and topped it up with pinesol and some water. 3 days later, I pull my carbs out, and they are covered in this grey film.. It appears they oxidized or something. The sludge comes off with a wire brush, but I cannot get into all the nooks and crannies.. The carbs look worse now than they did before I put them in...

Has anyone else encountered this issue? I am wondering if this will affect how the carbs function. Will this grey sludge create a residue in my bowls and possibly clog jets? does anyone have a suggestion for removing the sludge? I was thinking a pressure washer might do it, but don't have one. Also soda blasting, but I live 3 hours away from the closest place that can do this.

Secondly, in my fury upon discovering this issue, I was madly scrubbing with steel wool, and accidentally bent and cracked the starter jet on carb#4.... Can I just bend the jet back and try to put some JBweld on it? It seems like finding a replacement is next to impossible.

It seems like Murphy's Law always gets me...... Any help here would be much appreciated. Thanks

Ps. sorry, I do not have any pictures. At work right now.