Hi was incredibly nice chap and I do wonder if the machine was broken in transport after he passed As when he showed it me, some 5 years ago, it was fully setup and looked to be prepped for action. I could be wrong.
I have the same Perris lathe although mine was a touch later when the stock got rebranded to Cowells.
I took a hit and swapped the spindle directly for the metric thread - Cowels will sell you this. Like everything, it's expensive but was worth the money. In your case, it'll definitely be worth the cash and by swapping for a metric thread (I forget what the newer threads are) but it opens up your selection of chucks from everything high end from Cowells or down to a cheap ER16 chuck (which is perfect!!) from China.
Little bit more info on my Perris/cowells :
http://www.raynerd.co.uk/cowells-me-lathe/Hope that helps.