Originally Posted by
wrk101
+1 I was waiting for someone else to point this out. Want vintage high flange hubs at a reasonable/low price? Look for a vintage donor bike, such as an old UO8, or a Schwinn Continental. Both came with high flange alloy hubs, with QR levers. Both laced to crappy steel rims, but you can correct that deficiency.
Polish them up, and they could look really good.
Absolutely. I spent an afternoon polishing the "Schwinn-Approved" Maillard hubs from a long-dead dumpster find, and they're quite beautiful. I just used a rag and some Flitz, and they wound up barely short of mirror-like. Even if you can't find a donor bike, the hubs themselves are plentiful, and cheap, because of the whole Schwinn stigma...