Brent,

6 1/2" overall was what I got approx on my 71 Challenger, it's a 77,000 original mile car, with ALL original rustfree sheetmetal/floors/framerails/etc never hit, I've owned it for 32 years....



By your pics it's obvious the tranny is way to0 low, the shift tower isn't even protruding thru the floor,... not counting the shifter "nub", just the shift tower itself, it should protrude at least 1-2" above a factory floor floor hump after obtaining the proper driveline angke...I would concentrate your effort on getting the tranny tucked as high as you can, to determined how much you can either shim the rear leaf perches, or cut/reweld them...you can't determine that until you have a value on the tranny to work with,...8 degrees down on the pinion is on the excessive side, 5 degrees down is about avg on a Mopar/leaf equipped car, as axle wind up brings the pinion up approx 4 degrees under acceleration...get the tranny angle worked out first, so that the engine sits "right"...if you can get about an 1" more height that should bring the tranny angle to about 1 degree down, which IMHO is ideal

mike