I've been thinking about putting drop bars on my 1991 Nishiki Ambush and been trying to find donor bikes to steal the parts from. I came across someone on FB marketplace selling a 1998 Trek 1220 (similar to the one pictured, same color) for $75, which seems like a pretty good deal to get Shimano RSX components. I've never really tinkered around with building a bike or installing new shifters or anything, but I'd like to get into it. Since that's what most people do here on this subreddit, I figured I'd ask for your guys' opinion on taking the crank, cassette, derailleurs, handlebars, and shifters from the Trek and upgrading my Nishiki's (apparently really low quality) Shimano 100GS components. My bike is a 3x7, and so is the Trek, so I feel like all the components should fit on mine and have enough width in the chainstays. Apparently the Trek has dual pivot brakes, so I can't take those and transfer them to my bike, but Google says they have the same pull ratio as my cantilevers.
What do you guys think? Would this be a good bike to get quality parts from and learn how to work on bikes? And before anyone says, "Just ride the Trek, it's a much better bike than your old Nishiki. Why would you want to keep that one?", to that, I would say that I really like my Nishiki and its steel frame and don't really want to go to aluminum.