good advice from everyone, I start the tinkering bug about 15 yrs ago and also started with a bunch of japanese, english and american bikes. my first "good" bike as a kid was a lower end Peugeot, but haven't worked on a French bike since. Italian bikes aren't the best value either and most use their threading, ironically I started with a early 80's Ciocc 15 years ago with this craze as it was the bike I wanted but couldn't afford as a kid, hence the low end Peugeot. If you are looking to strip the bikes completely and swap parts, I would suggest mid 80s to early 90s steel bikes using 700c or 26" wheels. A few early bikes with aluminum head tubes bit the dust when I started hammering on them with home made tools you'll learn to make along the way. Happy hunting...