Wow...I would dread to take on this task, really. Seems something that would be endless headaches. I think you're on the right path with what they've been saying. The only thing I can add would be too look into "deformation along a path."
I've attached a few links to a tutorial about it, its the same tutorial but its only like 100 different sites, and seems to work better on some sites sometimes than on others. If none of the attached ones work, you can Google "deformation along a path + lightwave" and you should get the same results. I've never attampted what you're doing with spooling, and I definately salute you for giving it a whirl, I know it'd scare me off.
Let us know how it turns out, I'd be quite interested in seeing it, and if it works well I'd love to know how you did it. Its one of those things that seems simple, could look cool, but would be a real pain to actually do I think.
http://www.ksdd.com/articles/?p=94
http://digitalanimators.com/articles...fterinter=true
http://www.digitalproducer.com/artic...e.jsp?id=35883