The factory shock towers were just a PITA when it came to making nice free flowing headers so chopped mine off. i remounted the top of the shock onto the cage as i figured i'm not going to be doing any heavy cornering, this area didn't need reinforcing. i did this 10 years ago & so far it hasn't come back to bite me in the ass so its all good as far as i'm concerned. gave me plenty of room for making headers tho.