Frankenstein-ing a Royal Collet Closer for Lathe

[PJ]

Had some time to mess around in the shop and ended up starting down an unintended path.  So over the years, I've accumulated 3 manual Royal collet closer assemblies hoping to get them work on my 11x30 Colchester.  All 3 have issues, damaged/missing parts etc. and only one has the perfect length draw tube for my headstock. So I this week I started mixing and matching good parts onto the best assembly and I think I have a winner.  Three issues left to tackle.
 
1 - The rear adapter needs a .001 opening up to slip onto the rear of the spindle. I have it set up in the lathe indicated and ready to do a light skim.
 
2 - Need to open up the headstock end cover to allow the spindle adapter to fit thru and run without rubbing.  This is a dilemma for me tho.  Pains me to no end butchering stuff even if its for a good cause and especially on near unobtanium items like this original factory cover.  I could probably bore it out nicely on the mill but not sure I want to do it yet.  Project is DOA unless I proceed so we shall see.  Need to sleep on this. 
 
3 - Need to drill holes in the cover to attach the lever arm bracket.  Same issue.  Permanently altering an original cover in beautiful shape.

I'm only considering this because I have the closer assembly and it's nice to have more accessories for the machine.  I don't do much collet work.  Would you guys do the mods if it were your machine??
 
Tried to add photos but it says "upload directory is full."

[chips and more]

I totally understand about putting holes/modifying an original part/machine...I get it! I'm the same way. I also have a collet closer for my Clausing and you know what, have not used it yet, been decades. One reason is too much set-up time. Instead, I use one of those hex collet blocks with a 5C hole in it and put that in my 3 jaw. So far, works for me. And that's when I need a collet job (blue moon). I have a 3 jaw Buck chuck on my lathe that is so nice it's about all I use!