cheers all. the issue that dabern brought up about the axel to crown length was my main concern- i lined the fork up against an almost identical one which is on a road frame i have lying around and the rake looked the same to the naked eye but there is a noticable difference in length. if the steerer tube on that one was long enough i would do a straight swap and just see how the thing feels, but as it doesn't i'm gonna have to splurge on summat new(ish) and it needs to be right as this bike is going to cost me too much as it is.
jinx_removing- if i go the drilled route i will post how it went.