GCRyder

It's refreshing to see some disagreement with what seems to have become orthodoxy in the bike world. According to the MSDS for WD-40 (which you can find here), the "aerosol" version is 15 to 25% petroleum based oil, and the "bulk" (which comes in small squeeze-spray bottles) is 30-35%. When people say it's "not a lubricant," I guess they're making a judgment that its not viscous enough for their purposes. But, if you've ever stepped on the puddle of it that was oversprayed on your linoleum a week ago, you have little doubt that it's a lubricant.

Mooo

The Schwinn thing...
For a fun project, there is a lot in favor of one of the electro forged Schwinns:
1) Parts availability. Yes there are some peculiarly sized parts (stems), but in a pinch, most of these are available - I think Wald even makes a stem that fits.
2) Durable. There aren't any known parts on a Schwinn - even a Japanese or Taiwanese Schwinn - that are likely to fail.
3) maintainable. The only special tools you'll need to disembowel say a 3 speed Traveler down to the frame are a hammer, a block of wood, a large adjustable wrench, a punch and a flat bladed screwdriver. Convert that to a Varsinental and add in a freewheel remover and a vise. (vice ? ) For a Raleigh or Peugeot you're looking at cottered cranks and some bottom bracket tools. Not that tools are a bad thing, but to test the waters, so to speak, the Schwinns are less demanding on the budget.
4) they may ride differently than we expect a road bike to ride, but is that so wrong? It's just different.
5) after about '74, the Letours, Voyageurs, and Travelers are really pretty decent bikes, some in plain steel, some chromo. The 74 Traveler frame I have still uses a funky stem, but later versions became more and more standard. I think they're largely underrated bikes. After 83, darned near everything was chromoly, meaning a mid 80's World Sport (I think) is a real bargain. Replace some of the components and it's a sleeper, IMO.

This is not to discredit Peugeots, Raleighs, or anything else, only to point out that an electro-forged Schwinn is a very low risk first project. Even if you ball it up, it's probably savable.

Saintly Loser

That's the same color scheme I had. Unfortunately, that's too small for me. I might well buy one just like it, but if I remember right, the one I had (which fit me perfectly) was the biggest frame they made.