A sheet of plywood makes the gravel ever so much more comfortable.
You will have to drop the crank some (1/4 inch?) to do this job. That involves loosening all the main caps and likely pulling the transmission to allow the crank to drop. Then you can use the Sneaky Pete. Best Gasket may make a two piece rubber lip seal to fit the earlier engines that came with rope-type seals. They are the sole source of those for the later engines. While you're under there with the rear main cap off plastigage the rear main bearing and peel shims as required to get the tight factory clearance on the bearing. That will reduce the amount of oil that can find its way to the seal. Also check the crank surface where the seal rides. If it's rough the seal won't last. Oh and while your'e under there plastigage all the bearings. You may not be able to find new ones but you can shim them if they're not down to the copper. Tapered shim stock must be available somewhere these days.
In the Model A & T days folks used to hang a can on a wire under the clutch housing to catch the oil. Maybe in the Depression they poured it back into the engine, who knows. Definately a hillbilly fix but people were hard up against it in those days. I've just accepted some oil leakage there, just so long as it doesn't wet the clutch.
