Advice on lowering my Monte

Hey everyone!

So I finally am starting the build of my 85 Monte SS, and the wheel/tire setup is now on. MT ET Streets 275-60/15 in the rear and MT Sporstman 26x7.50x15 in the front. It looks amazing with the Weld Prostars! Only thing...it also looks like an off-road truck with the wheel well gap 😂 So my question is this - what's the most straight-forward way to lower this thing a bit? I'm thinking the rear needs to come down around 2" and the front around 3" (although 2 would be fine as well I think). The car is mainly a street car but will see the track occasionally (once the motor goes in later this year). I'm just looking to lower it for the looks - it's okay if the ride a bit stiffer, it's not perfect for the track, etc.

I've looked up a bunch of stuff here and elsewhere online, but I keep getting different answers and it's just making things more confusing! (completely stock suspension right now btw)

Should I just look at getting lowering springs only? Like this set: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/upi-3051/make/chevrolet/model/monte-carlo/year/1985

Should I get drop spindles?

Do I need to change springs AND add drop spindles?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! (pics below for reference)

565bbchevy said:

When I was first going with a frontrunner on my Monte I was lucky enough that my neighbor had some 15 x 4 Welds with those same 26" MT Sportsmans to try and after seeing that size in the front with my then Hoosier 29" tall QT Pros I decided there was no way that 3" difference in height would look right so I went with the MT 28 x 7.5 Sportsman in the front instead.
Years later I changed the rears to MT 295/55 Drag radials that are 28" tall and a then went with a 27.5" tall radial front.
IMO these diameter tires not only fill up the those big wheel wells but they allowed me to get the stance I was looking for while keeping the front and rear wheel well gap very close to each other instead of what would end up being a "raked" look.

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I absolutely LOVE the look of your Monte! Are you saying it's not lowered at all? Btw the front tires came with the wheels (killer facebook marketplace deal) so I'm definitely open to putting the taller front tires on. My rears are 28" as well, but there's still a bit too much gap for my liking.

565bbchevy said:

I have a 2" drop in the rear and the front is about 1" drop in springs but the added weight of the big block in there actually makes it 2" up front also. IMO a taller front runner will make it easier to do an even drop all around with just springs

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One more quick question - it seems like the 28" front sportsmans don't come in 8 ply and the rating is lower than my 8 ply 26" - did you see any issue with that, especially with the big block up front?