Steven
For 48v then the stock winding may sometimes work out fairly well but the mess to get it down to 12v must be detrimental especially being forced to use delta.

Also in this case I doubt that the 2 pole winding would have been very effective without monster magnets to force the flux through the long magnetic circuit. I think Zubbly always said that the results were better with more poles. For 24 slot you are stuck with 8 but for 36 slots then 12 pole would probably be better.

Approximating 2 or 4 pole without proper arc shape magnets is likely to be a fair compromise whatever you do.

I also agree about the lathe, I wouldn't touch a motor conversion ( or any radial) without a lathe. ( come to think of it, how can a man live without a lathe anyway?)