Are you using the stock coil springs on the front, or coil over shocks?? I usually just remove the coil springs and shocks when I am building a car with stock type suspension and use a peice of threaded rod bolted in place of the shocks to simulate where the car will be at ride height. If I am building the suspension with coil over shocks, then I use a peice of tubing with holes the correct distance apart to simulate the height of the coilovers when the car is at ride height.