48 SpeedShop,
I had my straight axle dropped 4 inches by Dave at
www.roadsters.com. I think it cost me about $300 at the time. It sits nice and low in the front and it doesn't have the clearance issues that you encountered with flipping the axle on top of the springs. The one gotcha is you need to heat and bend the steering arms down so that the tie rod will clear the leafs springs. You will also need to shorten the tierod because the dropped axle will move the tires inward slightly(no clearance issues though)
Here's a shot of how my truck sits:
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c13/rsg2506/dcp_0007.jpg -Rich
