I'm with FastJake - I wouldn't powder coat that bike. As-is you could sell that for $300. If you powder coated it, you could probably just get what you paid for it, $150.

Conversion? I wouldn't personally invest the time in that project, but if you've lots of free time why not?

Right, I get that. I'm merely offering mine as well which is: if he thinks he'll use/enjoy it more as a conversion, then convert it, and if he thinks he'll use/enjoy it more as a geared bike then don't.

I'm coming from the angle that if he really wants to convert it, he shouldn't be scared off by people saying "it's great as is, don't mess with it."

I vote restoration. I did one over the winter, now it's my preferred bike and it only cost me around $500 total. That's including brand new hand-built wheelset and NOS derailleurs.

I'll first point out I'm not of the strictly "keep it geared" mindset. This isn't a bike that's inherently more wonderful geared. The components are meh, and the bike looks like it would ride well as a conversion.

The main reason I'd suggest against converting and repainting it is you could probably come out way ahead by flipping it as-is. Paramounts have a silly amount of name cachet that spills over to not-so-mind-blowing bikes like this one. For that reason alone, if it were mine, I'd cash in and flip it for a healthy profit to put towards a complete singlespeed or a different conversion candidate.

I did buy this bike entirely for the sake of converting it to SS. However, when I bought it I didn't realize she was a gym. However, the whole powder coating argument, I wanted to do this cause the paint is chipped up a bit in places. I wanted to convert such a bike to SS cause I wanted a quality SS, hence the solid frame the Paramount is. But the idea of flipping it for a profit is appealing too. If I do keep it it is going to the powder coater. I wanted a clean bike as an end product. I was going to take my time and overhaul the entire bike. I wasn't going to chop it though because I wanted the option to convert it back to its original state. I ride a Giant Rapid as my multi-speed so I really wanted to take an older, quality bike, such as the Paramount, and convert it for the sake of a nice, fast, clean, functioning SS. Everyone has made valid points and I have listened to all of them. And Carelton is right, I asked everyones opinions cause there is a vast collection of knowledge on this forum. If I did keep and convert this bike it would be a long term keeper. Now I'm just as confused on what to do with her when I first asked the question. I guess that's the fun in it!

convert it

IMO keep it as-is. Buying a decent working bike like the Paramount just for the frame (guessing the frame is worth $50 by itself) and converting just doesn't make sense to me.... especially if you start hacking off braze-ons/bosses to get the "clean fixie" look.

Do what you will with it, just DON'T shave off any hangers or guides.