Love or hate em, at the end of the day Raleigh knew what they were doing and I love em. IMHO they got away with a lot because their design and process were solid as many/most of the frames still are today regardless of finish which on some was very good, some not so much. The Schwinn comparison is a good one for me as I have seen several chrome Paramounts and the finish on the seat lug is all over the place too, some beautiful, some like mine not so and I would think this is where you would try to make it right as it is so visible. So again at the end of the day these survive and thrive quite well as we can see.