Front Shocks-how much travel needed?

[joeybsyc]

While working on changing out my headlights a week ago, I noticed when removing the shock mount for the old headlight setup that my front shocks only have about 2" of travel before they would "bottom out"... in other words, only about 2" of the shaft is exposed at the top of the shock when the car is at rest. I don't know how much travel a solid axle/4 bar setup has to begin with, as this is my first but i would think it wouldn't take much to bottom these out. From what i can see, they are not "shorty" shocks, and look like they'd measure about 9 1/2" if they were fully compressed. I see So Cal sells a shorty shock from Pete 'N Jakes that seems like it would give me more travel before bottoming out, but I'm wondering if I need these or not.

http://www.est1946.com/index.asp?Pag...ROD&ProdID=160

I have not driven the car except for a few illegal trips around the block, so it has no "real world" miles on it. Shorty chrome shocks are spendy (about 90.00 each) and I don't wanna buck up for em if i don't need em... so the question is, is 2" of shock travel too little?