Corbett,
Thanks for sharing your opinions and thoughts on the project. I really do appreciate the feedback. Could have gone without the sarcasm, but to each his own. As stated in my first post, this is my first "restoration'. I am a generally pretty handy guy who like fixing old things, but still learning. Maybe I should have chose something different to work on, but hey, this is what I was handed. The owner of the bike is pretty knowledgeable and I was just trying to do the work he requested. I have a feeling that this is a rare, but not particularly valuable bike. The company was in business a short time and most people have never heard of it. This bike will end up being a display piece in a bike shop. I did inquire about getting the parts replated,.but due to the pitting I decided to polish what was left of the nickel finish and call it a day. I will post pics, but I think they look respectable from 10 feet.
In closing, I did reach out to the powder coat shop and canceled the finish. They will finish blasting the parts and I will attempting the paint with a paint gun slightly better than a.harbor freight one.
Didn't realize people such as yourself were so pasionate and condescending about bike restoration. I will continue to post my "progress", but feel free to skip reading if your just going to trash the efforts I am making to save a bike from the scrap heap.