Ok, I took the following pics less than an hour ago. I would have taken more, but my camera's battery died. I have another to trade out with, but I thought I'd go ahead and post what I have.
These pics are of the bike in "as found" condition. I haven't done anything to it so far. As you can see, it will need some attention before I get it back on the road. No tires or tubes, the rear axle is missing, the seat's pretty much roached, the controls for the derailleurs are missing entirely, the brake hardware is there, but the cables are broken or missing. And I suspect that weird looking rear derailleur system will need to be gone through completely. It has a generator, which appears to still be connected to the rear light, but the front light, if it existed, is missing entirely. The entire bike is chrome plated, but as you can see, it has pits. I'm gonna take some WD-40 and 0000 steel wool to it and see how much of the pitting I can remove. There's a Campagnolo decal down by the pedal hub, which I don't want to touch with my cleaning, and if I run across anything else that looks to be fragile, I'll steer clear of it as well.
I'm in a bit of a quandary as to what I should do with this bike. I'll be honest and up front with you folks. I plan to sell it. I have a nice Peugeot mountain bike that I actually like quite a bit, and I don't see any real reason to switch over to this Schwinn. But just because I plan to sell it, doesn't mean I don't want to give it the attention it deserves. I build and restore guitars, and each guitar that I take in to restore, I don't plan on keeping, but I'm gonna do the best restoration job on it I can. Well, I feel the same way about this bike -- within reason. I don't have an unlimited budget. So, one of the things I'd like to find out from you folks is, which way best optimizes resale value -- a full restoration, or bringing it back up to full operating condition, recognizing that, no matter what it is -- a guitar, a motorcycle, a car, or a bicycle -- they're only original once. As soon as I change something that has to do with the bike's structural or cosmetic appearance, it is no longer original. Although I hope taking WD-40 and 0000 steel wool to it won't count against the cosmetic component. If it were antique furniture, that would be a different matter. And I question whether or not the pits and blemishes in the chrome are even something that a patina-obsessed collector would even want.
I appreciate any perspective you'd care to share.