London Fixed-gear and Single-speed SJS Cycles

A moment of indecision: I went to put thumb shifters on but noticed how immaculate the paint is on the brazes so suddenly thought should I do this? What do you reckon, it probably originally had cable stops with bar end shifters right? Is it big deal if the paint comes off on the braze-ons, it's only gonna be a problem if someone reverts back to fixed and sees the lack of paint...the beautiful paint...

If you are going to ride this bike with gears, you have to use these bosses.
Either as fixation for down tube shifters or for shifting cable adjusters.
No matter how you will do it, the paint will be damaged. Just is bit tho'. Oky, the damage is bigger with (moving) down tube shifters than with cable adjusters/stoppers, but also the adjusters will make an imprint in the paint or metal.
Only if you will ride it fixed, you don't have to use these bosses and can keep the paint quality in best state. But even then, I would cover these bosses with some kind of cap (e.g. cable adjusters without the adjusting barrels), to prevent that the rider will get serious leg injuries when scraping the legs against the (sharp) bosses.

From what i recall from when i owned that frame, the paint whilst in good nick, is not immaculate (i took off the Aende decals because they were peeling off too), so i wouldn't worry about the bosses. Build it up how you want, though arent the cable adjusters on upside down?

ok thanks for the advice.