Some things to think about ...
(a) There comes a time when the paint finish gets so bad that you worry about rust causing serious damage, ruining the bike in perpetuity.
(b) There comes a time when the corrosion of chrome and fading of paintjobs gets so bad that a carefully restored bike would actually look MUCH closer to the original than the bike that you have right now.
(c) If you can get together a good set of replacement decals, and VERIFY that all decals are very close to original before embarking upon restoration, and
(d) IF you can take accurate photographs with rulers to record decal placement on the bicycle so that the painter can put the decals back properly,
(e) THEN, i think it might be a good idea to restore the bicycle.
The biggest problem with restorations is that (3) is made nearly impossible to do by certain paranoid decal makers and imho insecure painters who won't sell you the decals before you contract them to do the restoration.
I have never dealt with such people personally.
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA