The front end was lifted up by about 1 inch using an "off-the-shelf" rigid metallic conduit threaded coupling - 1.5" trade size - available from any electrical supply store. Don't confuse it with the regular "EMT" metal conduit which is much thinner and doesn't use threads - RMC has much thicker walls and has a heavier galvanized coating also. Here is an image:
The actual inner diameter of the part is about 2 inches. It fits around the normal / stock upper spring mount and fits nicely into the stamped sheet metal cup on the top of the front spring.
The spacer does transfer the load to just the rectangular metal frame instead of having it all on the small welded on stub - but I haven't seen an issue with it after about 6 months of use. The upper spring cup also is now fixed - it doesn't pivot like it does with the original design - but that is also how the later TD Pinzgauers where done. I think the ability for the spring cup to pivot is necessary at the bottom of the spring - but not at the top.
An additional benefit of adding the spacer is that it is then much easier to install the spring compressing tool as there is now a nice 1 inch space at the top of the spring. Makes it easier to clean out dirt etc as well.
No other modifications are necessary - but it does feel like the rubber bump stops (rubber springs) are more "active" compared to before - which makes sense since effectively they are now 1 inch longer. I have another pair of these rubber springs and am going to trim off 3/4" from the bottom to see if it makes any difference. I only feel it on big bumps at higher speeds and it is not that severe - just slightly different.
I'll look at the actual part numbers on the ones I used and will post it up here along with the dimensions. It is also possible to do this with regular steel tube or pipe cut to length - but this part seems to be a very good fit and is hot dipped galvanized and cheap (under $5 each).
This approach of using a piece of pipe/tubing as a spacer was mentioned on this forum a while ago - so I am not the originator of the idea...