It’s hard to tell how close the seal is. You will want a little room between it and the exhaust so that if the car gets stuck in traffic it doesn’t start to burn the seal. I would think a half an inch should be fine. I have over a inch on mine but I did slightly reform the splash panels for better fitment. From the pictures you may have to do the same to get the top portion to sit near the body. You can do this by bending out a small amount of the step in the panel in that area which will push that part of the panel out more tward the body. The issue you may still have is the nut clearnce. You can do the drill and tap thing I mentioned or use a button head Allen screw with the head facing the body. The head height of these is less then the nut height. You will have to pull the body out a little to be able to get it in.