Great paint job! How cool to have such a custom-looking bike (even if it is heavy). Is the lettering from a decal kit or did you hand-paint it?

I agree with Tom, since you already have dynamo lights and are planning to buy wheels anyways, get a dynamo hub. I guess keep the fenders and rack too (maybe another cool painting project?)

Gearing: 1x is where it's at, with a superwide cassette like 10-speed 11-42 (hopefully 10-speed is not too close-spaced for friction). Personally I would go with trigger shifters, since I like those a lot. Unfortunately disc brakes are not in the cards for this frame, so V-brakes, at least those will be cheap.