The reason I left the notch at a full 8" even though I don't want to "lay-out" was so I could run the Camaro rear sway bar I have been using. This set-up is especially nice for lowered trucks when you don't want something hanging down below the trailing arms as some of the aftermarket rear bars do.
I ended up grinding down that outer/rear edge of the inner notch plates to gain clearance for the swaybar. Also, I'm not totally satisfied with the mounting tabs that are welded to the notch. I think I'm going to run some 2x2 through both notches to serve as a bridge and swaybar endlink brackets. Here's what it looks like now (2nd pic):
It's good to have it handling "properly" again. Now I need to do some cleaning up of the lines etc back there. Once I figure out the final config I'll POR-15 all the bare metal.