Gents,
Thanks for the alert. First off, Ned is right. Converting a coil-sprung chassis to a leaf spring...ugh...no. Madness. BS. Can't be done. I wouldn't even try it and I have all the tooling.
653 was sold to Gerry Hawkridge in England as a 289 Sebring car. There are many subtle clues in those photos that say...Made in Poland.
This is NOT to say in any way that Gerry is involved in this. I simply don't know and won't speculate.
David