It's a piece of cake. I bought a new crankset, and replaced the bottom bracket while I was at it. It need to be slightly longer if I recall correctly.

I wound up needing to fashion a chain restraint out of an piece of aluminum and cable clamp, where the front derailleur was. Those can be purchased, but all with exorbitant prices in my opinion, especially since a cheap DR would work better for a fraction of the price. So it may be (and simplest) that you'd just leave the DR where it is already.