I don't think the reverse board (if there) is much of a victim issue here Doc, the smoke unit was wired direct to the rollers.
The same chamber type was used on a few, and that chamber could hold a wrapped ceramic post war pellet element, or the resistor type element.
A brand new chamber cap comes with many rebuild kits. The resistance might be 12- 30 ohm, but most likely nearer 27ohm. A lower number means more heat at a lower voltage, more heat means more smoke, and sooner rebuilds.
The price of resistor elements makes experimenting cheap. I prefer the more resilient post war type since when they go dry, they don't die.
Some careful crafting and you might be able to make a cap from high temp silicone.
Here is a draft-air unit I made of a silicone pill holder. It has about 30 hours of use and it works pretty well just being draft drawn. (25 ohm element, another tuft of very loose wick, the fiber disk keeps the stack from shorting on the element as the "sandwiching" under the lids pressure is..... the only thing holding it together[a quite firm hold though])
It holds an eyedropper of fluid very neatly.