After messing up the width of the last top hat section I attempted to bend up some more, this took another trip to the metal shop and several more attempts at fabrication, all this just to get the width 1 mm thinner
With the old cardboard template from my first attempt I dug out from the pile of scrap metal, I marked out the angles needed for the bend with a small hole drilled in the corner to relieve the bend. A couple of blocks, a large clamp, 2 litres of coke and Thors' Hammer allowed me to make the bend.
A trial fit just once, twice or seven times allowed me to adjust the angles of the cuts slightly so it would fit. This meant climbing in and out of my engine bay on my hands and knees each time. I like my van to know it's the Boss in our relationship.
A couple of tack welds on the bend line while the section was clamped to the chassis rail and then it was removed to be seam welded and then attacked with the grinder to hide the bodgy welding.
I cut up some of the other section I'd made so that I could see if it was worth fitting these U sections inside the top mount area to strengthen the support but it would have been to awkward to spot or mig weld these in place and they would have reduced the clearance inside the top shock mount even more that it already is.
I also bought some brass oiled bushes, one top hat, two for clamping either side of the shock mount bearing and a third that can turn down to the required length to get the correct position for the top mount. The shock mount hole is 1/2" (12.7mm) or 15mm (with the supplied spacer removed) and the brass bushes could not be supplied in either internal size, so I went for 12mm internal with 18mm outer. This is the diametre of the regular shock mount bolts for a van.
With the position of the top mount holes calculated from the nominal extension and retraction of the shock taking into account the full range of the A arm and the compression of the bump stop. I then ignored that and drilled a couple of holes where I thought looked good. Fitted a 1/2" bolt from a Creative Engineering mount kit, some bushes from a Demon Tweeks mount kit and a few washers allowed me to adjust the position of the mount forward and back to get the best position for inside clearance and shocks angle.
This also meant cutting the chunk out of the section so the shock would tilt back as the wheel moved up. A few ideas were passed around by my design team as to how to overcome this weak spot and the best idea that I/we could come up with was to cover the shock keeping the existing angles. So I raided the cornflake packet again to work out what shape I'd need.
I also needed to clear the back of the section where the A arm moved up and rubbed. I cleared this originally by cutting it out with the grinder, This time I heated the section up and grabbed Thor's Hammer again to beat the whatever out of it. The blocks helped keep inline what needed to stay straight and I got to let all my aggression out. 
To get the second hole drilled in the correct position I fitted the bush into the first 18mm hole then clamped it in the pillar drill vice, by slotting a 12mm drill into the bush and poking it out the other side I was able to line up the tip of the hole cutter with the tip of the 12mm drill bit. I drilled away and it still looked a bit off.
I just need to turn down the bushes to the correct length and I can then weld this side to the van and then do it all again for the other side. Whoop whoop.
