I often use Ultimate Unwrap 3D for file format translation (and it's not a bad UV unwrap tool either!
)
The program is inexpensive and Brad is really good at responding to emails - you may be able to simply take your OBJ into Unwrap3D and simply save it again to fix the OBJ file problems...
(Yes, more expensive than simply stripping spaces, but if you can use the other great import/export and unwrap features then it's worth it.
)
http://www.unwrap3d.com
-Will