Hi Bruce, I was following your Mendeola trail with curiosity interest. It seemed like an odd (and expensive) way to go, and kind of a square-peg-round hole solution anyway. So I was wondering how that was going to end up.
As DannyP mentioned in another thread, why not simply add a more typical A-arm coil-over suspension to the front of the frame; something that has been already thought-out and done before.
Here is a picture of a replica spyder frame, albeit a 718, but you get the idea.
Note: The original 718 was also a twin torsion beam, trailing arm suspension same as the 550. So the picture represents doing the same thing to the front suspension as you were trying to do with the Mendeola.