mickey85

So I was just given an old Kabuki Super Speed. You know, one of the ones with the quill style seat post, and steel everything? Well, the wheels are a bit rusty, the handlebars weigh 20 lbs, and the cotter style bottom bracket and cranks could use replacing (besides, I loathe cotter bottom brackets). I plan on making this a hack-around bike that might go on the occasional 25-40 mile club ride on Tuesday nights (at least until the Raleigh Pro gets fixed), but it desperately needs upgraded. The local co-op would be a good place for a number of parts, but their wheel selection is horribly limited. Also, the market on 27" or 700c bikes here is VERY lacking. I mean, nearly nonexistent. And if you can find one, they're $200+.

Do you think it would behoove me to grab a Schwinn Varsity or a Denali and swap over everything from one of those, then grab some downtube shifters from the co-op and toss those on? I mean, the parts aren't the greatest, but neither is the bike, and with all of the newer alloy stuff on there, perhaps the bike will get to be somewhere under 50 lbs... The way I see it, it would be nothing special for a nothing-special-but-kinda-pretty-in-its-own-way type of bike...

Anyway, it just seems to me that it would be a cheaper way to build this thing up as opposed to buying quality stuff for a boat anchor bike.

Retro Grouch 

The trick with a bike like this is holding down the budget.

Anybody can take a free, 40 pound *** and turn it into a 38 pound *** that they've got $100 invested. I MIGHT buy new cables and handlebar tape. See if you can scrounge everything else. Trust me, it's do-able.

Bikewer

I've done something similar, but with parts I had on hand. I took a gas-pipe framed Raliegh with Simplex DRs and way-too-high gearing and swapped all the Suntour parts from an old Fuji roadster that was way too small to ride.
Rode that bike for a couple of years till I could afford something better. The Fuji had a 12-28 freewheel that was lots friendlier than the 11-21 on the Raliegh.