Rob,
Really like the your front "suspension" design, am planning something similar on my lakester. One thought is to use Bellville washers in place of the die spring, they are pretty much self dampening and you can change spring rates by the way you stack them. I know it has been said before regarding teflon tape but if you use it make sure you do not put it on the first 2-3 threads of a pipe fitting, gives you a better chance to not have it in the system, the Loctite thread seal is the best though. Also like the teflon coating on the suspension parts, I worked on some off shore oil transfer buoys once, a long time ago!, and we teflon coated all of the bolts, washers and nuts for corrosion resistance. Seemed to work as they are still working today.
Rex