assuming your going to leave the spring pads like they are do your self a favor and go get 4 pieces of 75x25x3mm flat steel plate, radius grind and debur one side of each piece and then weld them onto the outside of each spring perch so that in the event of it trying to dislodge or kick the spring out the aditional plate will hold them in place.
the shocky will now be your limiting factor and as such I suggest that you find out what the maximum droop is with one shocky disconnected (repeat the experiment on each axle corner as you dont want to find out that hard way that the spring will kick out completely if it articulates after a shocky gives up or worse that it can take out a brake line thats been measured by landrover to be 1/2 an inch too short.
Best of luck with it all.

