Classic & Vintage - Boredom setting in, urge to clean takes over

So I'm bored. Kids at grannies, wife is asleep. Old bike that I ended up with has been downstairs forever. Some may remember the thread:

Read about it here! (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=163037&highlight=pink)

So tonight I stripped the Weinmann brakes off and cleaned the up nicely, then pulled off the gt-100 rd, and cleaned it up really well, it was full of gunk and dust bunnies from years of sitting. I had expected the bike to be a lost cause to be truthful. Upon removing the brakes and the rd, I realized that the damage to the bike is from sitting, not use. Its garage weathered wherever it was. The rd and shifter do work great, and what i thought was scratches on the rd turned out to be chrome pits, but i'll rechrome it into a really expensive new rd. I am fairly sure this will turn out to become an anally built quite expensive bike. A few parts will have to be replaced like fenders due to dents.

I did try to buy a new Trek Calypso and replacement stickers so I could have it sprayed in pink, but Trek says ask a dealer (they could have answered such an easy question), dealer says they'll call to see if the stickers are avail seperately, and they never returned the call to me.

Well heres the beater:

http://home.pacbell.net/pneil/suburban.jpg

http://home.pacbell.net/pneil/gt100front.jpg

http://home.pacbell.net/pneil/gt100back.jpg

So...I'm not even sure that we have rechromers out here in da boonies - how much will you spend to rechrome that part?

How far downwind of the Pacific Ocean are you, Eric? In my neighborhood, 1 km from the edge of the continent, chrome is the first thing to deteriorate.

Just replace the derailleurs, it'll be cheaper than rechroming.

If therese derailers were available NOS, i'd get one in a heartbeat.

I think I've got one of those RDs that's at least better off than yours; I'll check it out when I get home tonight.

in his last picture of the RD the way you have to hook up the derailleur to the pat... I have a cheap Shimano RD-M100 and I'm not gonna use it, but it have the same system. I never managed to attach it properly to the frame.. any tips? I finally want to know :)

I tried it once. The first stroke 100 meters away from home i really put some power on the crank the RD came off :)

The derailer has a nut that bolts it to the frame. It is so it can stay on the frame while you remove the wheel and stay on through torque like you mention.