That's the thing, it wasn't a wreck.Wow! When you've spent time on such a wreck, and think you're getting somewhere, then you find more stuff that needs to be fixed, it's too late to stop. You've got to keep going or you've wasted the time you already put in.
All it "really" needed in parts was a few feet of cable housing and some electrical wire.
Those were the obvious issues. Had I rolled it into a shop and said "the lights don't go on and I've lost one gear", that's probably what it would have gotten, and been back on the streets within 30 minutes.
But with algae growing on the grips, an easy point of entry for water into the cable housing, lights not att full strength, a semi-seized, gouged seat post and an overall matted appearence.
I guess that depends on the amount of storage space you've got.One of my neighbors left a bike outside with a "Free" sign on it, so I took it home. Cleaned it up, trued the wheels, inflated the tires, and found the hub gear was shot. The bike was the cheapest of the cheap when it was new, so hardly worth the expense of putting another hub gear in. Got my Sawzall out, put a metal blade in it, and chopped the bike up and recycled the metal.
Around here, I come across bikes with bent forks every now and then. Front wheels generally also damaged. Maybe even a suspect down tube. Makes good donor bikes for cranks, saddles/seat posts, racks rear wheels....
Then you break out the Sawzall...