Leaf Spring Mounting Plate Mods

So, as reported earlier, I bought new leaf spring mount plates.  Surprise! Now the U-bolt washers don't fit in several places.  I briefly considered hunting for smaller diameter washers, but it turns out that a socket wrench doesn't fit either -- that's a non-starter. (How could the manufacturer have decided that that was OK?)  So, I ground out room where I needed it.  Here's what the front mounting plates look like after grinding but before (re)painting.

Front Tow Shackles

Here's a picture of the driver's side front tow shackle installed:

The new shackles are incredibly beefy.  They're a direct replacement for the stock shackles, and allow easy installation of D-rings or flat towing hardware (through the middle/forward hole).  Unfortunately, they also add about 1" of lift.  Problems this creates: (1) I'll be 1" over stock in the front but 0" in the rear, and (2) There's now a huge gap to cover in order to mate the leaf spring to the axle, and the passenger-side side brake line (installed by the PO) is too short [correction 2/19: Turns out it's just barely long enough].  I think solution to (1) may be just to put these on the back as well (so 1" all around).  I think the solution to (2) will be just to combine axle reinstallation with brake bleeding, and then replace both lines with longer lines.

More Suspension-Related Horror

Here's a picture of what I discovered when I tapped out the front hanger shackle bushing shell on the driver's side:

Was hard to see previously because the inner shell was not rusted and had become the same shade of road-grime as the leaf spring hanger.  The whole hanger needs to be replaced, which will involve cutting it off from the frame and welding a new one back.  Not interested in buying a welder this month, so I'm going to hope that vertical sections of the hanger are sufficiently strong for rolling in and out of the garage, and I'll come back to this later (but before leaving the driveway...).