I was contacted by another forum member who can ID himself if he likes. He made up some early copies back in the 80s, and in fact welded together most of the springs as shown in my photos. He is positive this was one of his creations.
So now I start the return process on ebay. It's hard on the seller, as he has to re-reimburse the shipping that I paid, as well as pay the return shipping (with insurance and signature) back to him. Since it's international, it takes a lot of meat off the bones. I don't think he intentionally mis-represented it, but it still falls on his responsibility in the end.
Oh well, with any luck I'll find an original at my favorite scrapyard yet.
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