Good Morning Peter!
Thank you for your answers. It is good that there is only a .5mm difference between stock gear. Still ashamed that you had to cut the nose strut. If you had to cut the fuse for the mains to fit, then your mains would have been too long. When you say: Slight down elevator in flight mode". Am I understanding gear up, flaps up? If so, then the down elevator is telling us that you aren't nose heavy, but rather tail heavy. IF you have a slight down elevator with flaps down, then this is normal. To me, it is still pointing at incidence. Also, when you do the incidence, fill the tank. This will add more weight on the nose strut to give you the worse possible measurement for the incidence at take off.