Radiator to Valve Question

Recently we needed to move the radiator to get to the wall behind it as we were removing all of the Zbrick in the kitchen placed in the 1970s. At the time the radiator sat on a stack of 4 tiles each foot in order to bring to the height of the valve. Now that we've completed the Zbrick removal, wall is finished, we want to reinstall the radiator, but this time without the stack of tiles. There is actually about a 1/4 inch difference between the valve and the radiator (valve is higher than the radiator). I was looking for advice from this crew to see what may be the best approach. Here's what I was thinking:

1. Removing the valve, use a die to add more threads, and cut the upper threads so the valve would seat lower.
2. Remove the 1.5" pipe, replace it with a shorter length(not sure if possible not knowing how long this pipe has been in service and likely rusted to elbow below).
3. Find a valve that has a lower bottom to center dimension (current one is about 1.5", would need about 1.25").
4. Find a radiator that sits higher, and the input would possibly be higher (like some of my other radiators in the house).

The first picture is the old with the stacked tiles. The second and third are current conditions without the tiles. Radiator is 34x 19 x 7.