I am still following, and will refer back here often when I finally get down to the nitty gritty and begin work - money is tight right now and I can't really dive into it right now.
Thanks for the suggestion - but now that y'all have taught me what a unique gem this is I've reconsidered and am going to probably try to keep it as true to original as I can. I still may remove the chainguard because I found it kind of ugly from the get-go, but I'll make that decision on the fly lol.

I'm really looking forward to working on this over the course of the year. I'll post back when I get to doing things here and there. And still would appreciate any further thoughts/suggestions for parts/pieces/etc y'all have!