Current Projects chat and miscellany

Picked up this rather neglected Mercian a few weeks back and looking forward to restoring it-it's full 531 professional tubing, nice lugless fillet brazed construction and despite a totally seized BB that has now been dissolved (the paint was really scabby and had been badly touched up over the BB anyway) there is a rather nasty dent in one of the stays which I'm a bit concerned about but should be ok.... I really like the pearlescent white with blue mercian stickers though-normally I prefer the gothic end of the spectrum-so I may re-do this with powdercoat as opposed to enamel.

I do however need to figure out what to do with the forks as the chrome has peeled pretty badly on a couple of spots and I don't know how well they'll take a powdercoat or if it'd look really scabby and uneven. Chances of buying a new pair off Mercian for 120 are slim as much as I'd like to...

Right,

Mercian just got back to me saying it'll be about 260 for a re-furb (not including new forks ;( ) which I can't afford. Between the dent and the need for a new paint-job, I'm now wondering if it would be total sacriledge to just do a cheap but decent hammerite job on it myself and use it as my winter bike?