Originally Posted by Velo Mule

I like it @KeepPedaling . Fuji always did a great job with paint regardless of where it was in their lineup and yours in the dark green with gold lettering looks great. Nice job restoring it. For the chainstay, some of us here get a piece of aluminum tape and cut ovals in each end and tape it down to the chainstay to cover the chain rash and prevent new niks. I like using black vinyl electrical tape, cut the same way. Back in the day, someone was making stainless steel chainstay protectors that look great and held up well.

I had a pair of Belleri handlebars that had a similar shape to yours. I liked them. I ended up selling them with the bike. I used standard dropped bar brake levers with them because I do most of my riding on the hoods of the brake levers.

I like the brown seat as well. It goes well with the green. Those steel rims cleaned up real nice too. Some of us here don't like steel rims, but there are cheap steel rims and there are better ones, the only downside is with nice chrome rims, it could be hard to stop in the wet.

Are you going to go to a single speed on this? It does have a perfectly good Suntour ARX derailleurs and power shifter on it. If it were mine, I'd keep it.

Keep us updated. More pictures = more better.

Originally Posted by madpogue

The mods aren't my cup of tea, but the clean-up is impressive to say the least. To generalize on some of the notes above, pretty-much any components you remove from this bike for your mods are worth saving/selling. If nothing else, donate them to a local bike co-op / kitchen, or offer them free on CL. As said, the gold rims and Suntour power ratchets are prime examples. They're not making any more of them, after all. You may find yourself going back to those gold Ukai wheels, by the way, when you notice how much heavier the ride feels with those steel Femcos. As mentioned above, the braking will not be as good with the Femcos, esp with just a front brake. Kool-Stop salmon pads would be a wise choice.

+1 what Uncle Sheldon said about the Del Rey as a sport touring bike. Mine's been a blast, slower than my "go-fast" bikes but an excellent light hauler. Looks like yours is a Japan-made bike; it was probably one of the last (my '89 is a Taiwan bike).

Originally Posted by 52telecaster

Nice video and I appreciate your bravery showing your balding head...

Also digging the chalk! This seems to be basically a styling exercise. My bikes could see more style.