Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - late 1970's Raleigh 1027 for SS conversion?

I have the opportunity to pick up a Raleigh 1027 for very little cash. It looks to be in good structural shape, and I wanted to check with the knowledgable heads to see if anyone had any major red flags regarding this bike as a possible SS?
It's probably going to be modified on the cheap and left at my folks' house (they live at the beach where it's dead flat, would allow me to not have to bring my Kona Jake commuter up there whenever I go)

All I think I'd do would be to get a cog/spacers and a new chainring (supposedly this one has a "Sugino 3-pin" crankset- would it be very tough to swap in a Salsa or other SS ring, or would I be better off replacing the whole crankset?

The freewheel is a 14-28 Suntour- again, any major issues with putting on a Dimension type cheapo cog?

Thanks in advance.

Rampar 1027 right? I think that was the low end of the rampar line. Should be fine.

The freewheel cluster should be a thread on suntour, you should easily be able to take it off and thread on a BMX freewheel. You might have to re-dish/re-space the rear wheel though.

Is the Sugino three pin similar to the TA 3pin? Is it a square taper or cottered crank? If it's cottered, I would ditch it. Get yourself an inexpesive BB and a new set of cranks. You could probably find a cheap set of road doubles and just convert them. If you use a road BB, you can just flip the spindle and put the shorter end on the drive side.

Check here:

http://www.loosescrews.com/

You can get NOS shimano UN series BB for $10. You can probably get a freewheel for $20, and if you dig a bit, you can find an old set of cranks on the cheap. I found a set of tourneys for $3 at a swap meet, they converted fine.

Good luck.

BTW, throw some promenade or flipped north on that thing and go townie style.

Cool- thanks for the input. Off to the Vintage forum to ask some more age related Q's...