I recently scored a free 1974 Deelite Apollo 10 speed. As far as I can tell, it has all original parts, but most of the stickers have faded out and there are a few places where the paint has failed completely on the tubes.
As a project bike, would you consider stripping and painting the frame, or simply replace what needs done (tires, bar tape) and ride it as is?
Might seem a bit out there, but color matched paint is so easy these days. Even if it’s faded, they can match that. You could just touch up the worn areas and try to leave as much original as you wanted. I’m kind of a traditionalists with old mechanical things though, so maybe this is bananas.
Me too, so that’s probably where I’ll end up.