Originally Posted by bikemig

You're better off posting/uploading some pics to this site an then asking some questions. As a general rule, when converting a vintage mtb to a touring bike, the gearing is going to be more or less right. You'll need to swap the tires out from knobbies to slicks. And then you need to decide whether to do a drop bar conversion or not. If it were my bike and I was turning this into a touring bike with flat bars, I'd go for trekking bars with thumb shifters. The trekking bars give you more hand positions.