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So, for some reason I have had a sudden urge to run my players through some old school, first edition DnD modules - specifically Pharaoh and the rest of Desert of Desolation (that's I3, I4 and I5 for the old timers). But - I don't want to use 1st edition DnD (too weird, clunky and random) and I have no desire to convert them to 5th edition (which has already been done on Drivethru, but 5e makes my head hurt). What I want to do is use Forbidden Lands.

What advice or issues do you see me having?

For reference, the first module starts with 5th level DnD characters who are dumped in the desert and told (at sword point) to go find some bandits. From there they get drawn into tomb robbing, vanquishing evil and so on and so forth. Clearly I will need to craft NPC and monster stats, but there is lots of undead and nothing I can't reskin. Is the power curve too dissimilar to 1e DnD? How much experience would a 5th level DnD character have once converted to Forbidden Lands?

There is a lot of monsters/NPC already created for Forbidden Lands, in the GM guide or fanmade (i dont remember where in this forum i grabbed a pdf with fan made classic DnD monsters).

I would look into them to find the monsters that fits in those old DnD module. And maybe make some change if you think the PC wont be able to defeat it (or let them use another way). But you could also give the PC some strength with XP to spend on talents and skills and/or stuff (can make the difference). But i am not sure this is really necessary except if you plan to face them with the most dangerous monsters of the game (Dragon, trolls, and so on).

For traps and so on, only use their skill check to see if they succeed or not. Maybe using the modifiers to rolls (-3 to +3) if the difficulty is varying.
About the consequences of those failure, you can use the critical injuries table (asking for a roll, but be careful, dead is possible, or just stating the result is this injury or this one.) or just making a damage roll (Xd6) to see how much "damage" they take.