Originally Posted by john_and_off

i just finished my first conversion last month - ironically enough, also with a schwinn world sport (mid to late seventies, but mine was in good condition) in the end, i spent about 300 dollars, and ended up with a bike that's a joy to ride and pretty solid, imho.

rather than go the route of rebuilding the rear wheel, i chose to get an entirely new wheelset. i bought the track wheelset from bicyclewheels.com. they come with mavic cxp22 rims laced to formula hubs (flip-flop in the back, in case you want to run a freewheel, too) the wheels have been teriffic thus far, and everyone at the company has been super friendly and helpful, so i'd give them my recommendation, if you're considering a new wheelset. it did end up being the majority of the cost of the conversion at ~150 dollars, but if you have 300 to spend, that shouldn't be an issue. my worldsport had 27" wheels, and the wheelset i picked up were 700c, so if you're concerned about tire clearance, this might not be the best option, but they've worked wonderfully for me.

i'm not sure how your frame compares to mine, but i really only needed to add a rear axle spacer and the chainline was close to perfect.

one other thing to consider is that my worldsport, which was completely stock, had cottered cranks. the folks at harris cyclery informed me they are dangerous to use if you intend to do any backpedaling (and you probably do) so i also ended up buying a new crankset and bottom bracket, so that was more or less a third of my project's budget.

if there's anything specific to the frame that i might be able to be helpful with, feel free to pm me - i'm no mechanic, but i'll try my best to be helpful! hope some of this is of use, and i'm sure everyone else will have plenty to add (and maybe a few corrections to my post)