I recently converted an old 66cm Ross Cr-Mo frame (eBay buy) to SS. Stripped it, painted with Rustoleum, and bought new wheels, crank, pedals, seat, brakes and handlebar. Found old stem on eBay--had powdercoated. I run a 46/17 SS.

The bike rides excellent and is just over 20 pounds--I'm very happy with how it turned out.

I wanted it to look new--so I was not afraid to buy new parts. Did a lot of online shopping on eBay and Amazon--got what I felt were good deals on everything. If you can reuse old parts and get what you want in the end, by all means do it that way.