There's no way you'll have enough clearance with the stock nose gear and a 16" prop. With a 15" prop, you'll have about 1/2" clearnance using the stock nose gear and wheels. I bought the extended length nose gear from my LHS. I think it was about 8 dollars or so. It was a Great Planes nose gear, i believe. It came without the 90 degree bend for the wheel axle, so i had to take it to my local hardware store where we used a torch and a vice to make a 90 degree bend for the axle.

If you use larger wheels on the stock nose gear, beware that the axle isn't that long. You might be able to get 3 inch wheels on it. But after that, there's not enough room leftover to put the wheel collar on.

The taildragger conversion would be easier if you haven't already glued the rudder to the vert stab. With the rudder off, it will be easier to thread the tail wire through the horz stab and into the vert stab before gluing on the rudder.

The alternative to all this hassle would just be to use a 3 bladed prop as you suggested. At one point, I had a 14 inch three bladed prop with the extended length nose gear and there was plenty of clearance. I'm just trying the two bladed prop right now to see how the engine behaves. The main reason i wanted to try taildragger conversion was because i couldn't get a tight fit on the control arm to the nose wheel for steering with the extended length nosegear. Even with picture perfect landings, I needed to adjust the nose wheel after every flight and just got tired of it. From here on out, I only intend to purchase tail dragger models. Nose gear is just too much hassle.