ingredents:

'72 schwinn varsity.
'72 brooks (b72?) not sprung seat
'80 3 piece BMX cranks (around 40-46t maybe)
Cut down bull horn bars
27" rims
16-18t Freewheel

Diacompe brakes

grind off all excess brazings (to shave the weight)

alloy stem

Any comments/suggestions for retro wrongness improvements would be great!

Sounds good to me. I did a similar job on my 75 varsity. Swapping the one piece crank and steel rims with a 3 piece crank and alloy rims really make a big difference. I removed all the braze-ons including the kickstand and smoothed it all out prior to paint. You might look into that stem some more. The diameters are different and I needed to change out the fork to use an alloy stem. I had cut down bull horns at first but later I swapped them for some ergo drops. Just a personal preference. I'm still running the stock brake calipers but someday I may upgrade them.

This was a great project and it turned out much better then I expected.

Here's a pic.

How much weight do you think you will save by doing this? I would keep the original braze-ons in case you ever want to return it to stock, and have a couple fewer beers. You will probably save more weight.

I'd get rid of the kickstand and housing, but I'd leave the cable braze ons. How much do cable braze ons weigh?

Check eBay for a stem from a Continental, the Conti stem and bars were alloy -- very light and high quality -- and they are a direct bolt on for the Varsity fork.

You can see what I did with my Varsity here:

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage/128775-my-improved-schwinn-varsity-pics.html

Yeah, what he said! I would have done that if I could have found one for a price I was willing to pay.

Nawww I'mm shaving it all off. Those braze-on's are solid steel! And I know all about the different diameters on the stems. That conti idea is great advice. I was just going to use my BIG hammer!

Thanks for the QC guys and gals(?)

Keep the ideas flowingin' I am not going to repaint, just shave and touch up with schwinn yellow (where go I get that?) or clear coat. I gots me an angle grinder baby!!!!!!!!!

Be careful with that grinder! I took mine off with one and it is very easy to get carried away. Bondo helped hide the sins.

You might try hyperper-formance for the paint:

https://www.hyper-formance.com/paints.htm