looks ok to me i think
From experience and seeing others, the clearance should be a bit less than that.
Nope, they should not be like that, the problem is cheap mounts or you have assembled something wrong.
Mounts I think are ok, they seemed decent quality when I inspected them. What I think I may have done wrong is not screwed down enough the threaded nut, as the spring was pretty tight and my friend couldn't compress it that much. I'll take it all apart on Sunday, wind down the coilover so the spring isn't tight and then refit. I'll report back with a solution

Oh and Wayne, I'm honoured that your 30,000th post was advice for a problem of mine...Fits in rather nicely
