I finally took my project bike's rear wheel down to the Walk N Roll shop to discuss replacing the rim and spokes. The rim is steel and fairly rusty, and I thought the spokes were rusty/corroded too, so I figured this would be a good time to learn wheel-building.
Except the Great Olympia Bike Guru (i.e. David at Walk N Roll) tells me it's more complicated than either of us expected. The wheel has 40 spokes, which makes it a difficult rim to match -- most modern, alloy rims have 32 or 36 spokes. And the spokes aren't corroded, they're galvanized; they're supposed to look like that. On top of that, the rim, while made of the less-desirable-with-rim-brakes steel and sporting significant rust patches, is still structurally OK. It's not as simple as buying a new rim; I'll probably be looking for something off an older bike, plus modern spokes aren't quite the same shape. The flanges on steel hubs are thinner than on alloy ones, and modern spoke shoulders curve more gently, so best-case I'd need spoke washers, which are fiddly and expensive.
So, our verdict: rebuild with the current wheel and keep an eye out for both signs of further rusting on the current wheel and a matching rim, ideally a close enough match to use with the current spokes. A shot of something on the Frame Saver lines inside the rim won't hurt in the meantime.
Still waffling on the paint; now I'm thinking the sleek black or grey look won't really fit the "old-school" fluted fenders and generally chunky look. I wonder if I could mimic the colors and general spotty look of corroded copper or patinaed brass. I like that sort of blue-green you get with old copper, and if some of the original flat gold shows through it won't look that odd. So, hmm.
Still gotta figure out how to "unscrew right-hand ball ring completely and remove the cartridge from the hub shell" so I can get in and fix/grease the gears. I've identified the right-hand, i.e. drive side, ball ring but don't see any way to get ahold of it to turn it.*
Did buy it a new tire, though, now that I know for sure what rim I'll be using. Got pair of medium-cheap Schwalbes, in fact, so I could have a matched pair, because good ol' Deschutes had them in stock and because I really really like the expensive but impenetrable high-end Schwalbe Marathons I have on my beloved Breezer.
--------------------
*"Servicing the Sturmey-Archer AW Wide-Ratio Three-Speed Bicycle Hub" appears to want you to use a hammer and punch to do this, but I really don't see how, and anyway I'm not even surethey're not talking about the split-ring p[art before that, which isn't even mentioned here.
