When I was a broke as **** college student I rode a single speed varsity that I cobbled together for $30. It was a pos, and was not fun to ride. The fork is made out of solid steel. The 1 piece crank weighs as much as the frame I ride now, and is threaded for 1" pedals so you can only really use cruiser or bmx pedals. It handled like a barge because of the slack angles and huge wheelbase. It takes a weird sized seatpost and stem. This is why I don't understand why people spend money custom painting their varsity and putting $150 wheelsets on them.

If you spend just a little more time looking, you can find a far more suitable frame to convert. My miyata frame was $10 at a yard sale and is made from double butted lugged 4130 and has geometry that is comfortable but is fairly responsive. and it came with decent 80's parts: sr stem and bars, shimano bb, sakae cranks and a tange headset. But hey, if you want to burn money on a frame thats ugly, heavy, sluggish and incompatible with most modern cranksets, go for it.