I tried a wheel and the correct nuts on the long stud this morning. With the closed nuts the studs are definately two long, so I had a few options. Take a grinder to the studs, buy new open ended nuts or modify the nuts I have.
I decided that I would take the tops off of the acorn nuts, because buying new nuts would cost money, and grinding the studs would cost time. I machined the nuts during my break at work.
So, take 16 of these:

Let this ginger grinning bafoon loose on them:

And end up with these:

Yes I know the ends will rust, but I can blob a little paint on them and its not like the south east asia spec chrome was going to last long anyway.
Fingers crossed that it stays dry tonight and I can get on with the front studs.