I already offered to do this (would take about a day) but he wants to keep the existing directory layout which would be PITA for any automake set-up ... so probably have to stick to his python hack make until he can change that.
I'm glad to see someone will be able to do it at some point. I confess I tried to read the autotools documentation but I found it quite tough to grasp so I kind of gave up.
If you can do it, it's great. It's ok if you prefer to wait until he changes the directory structure. There is no rush.