I really should've figured on this... but I didn't.
So the 1987 Centurion Dave Scott Ironman Expert "Miami Vice" I bought last month. I stripped the rear wheel and readied the rim, spokes, and spoke nuts for the scrap heap. Not sure if it was ice damage or just what, but the rim was cracked in four different locations, and five of the spokes snapped when I went to unscrew the spoke nuts, crazy stuff!
So I'm thinking to myself, "it's not a big deal there's a couple spare rear 700c road bike wheels sitting in the storage shed". But, being the complete noob to all this that I am, made the mortifying shock discovery that there's apparently more than one size of cassette mount, there was no such mention of this possibility in the bike repair book I've got, and boy do I feel stupid for not considering there could be more than one size of mount. So I've got the hub, and the cassette, both of which are fine. Is it cheaper to hunt a whole wheel with compatible mount for the Shimano cassette, or to try to source a rim and spokes and build a wheel using the original hub?