Sway Bar yes or no
It was actually substantial, maybe an inch and a half? These pictures weren't intended to show the end link length, but you can see the difference between them. Also, I didn't cut the end links. As you said they're a bolt and sleeve arrangement and the unthreaded section of the bolt in the middle means you can't really cut the threaded end down and still have enough threads. So I used a different length bolt and a completely different sleeve as well. I may have shortened mine a smidge too much though, as you can see the leg of the sway bar isn't quite parallel to the strut rod.
First off I really kinda wonder if your car is going to be too low. Factory ride height was pretty level front to rear. And with an A-body 2" of lowering is really the sweet spot for the suspension geometry, it puts the LCA parallel to the ground which is about as good as things get for your camber curves. Lower than that and a couple things happen, one is that you don't have enough suspension travel. The other is that your header flanges end up too close to the ground for a lot of normal driving situations, like speed bumps and driveway transitions. On my car, which is lowered about 2", the driver's header flange is less than 4" off the ground. It's not terrible to deal with daily driving it, but I've run that as low as about 3.5" and at that point you drag the flange on damn near everything. Your drop spindles don't help with the suspension travel either, as I've mentioned before taking the travel limit off of the LCA's doesn't buy you much, because you immediately move it to the top of fenderwell. The tubular LCA gets you about 1" more than the factory LCA by itself because of the lower height profile, and that's enough to make the inner fender the limit before the LCA to frame. At full compression my spindle is only 13" from the top of the inner fender, so a 26" tire would rub at full compression. My tires are 25.6", so it's tight.
With the stock height springs de-arched 1.5" you'll be pretty low already, I doubt once the springs settle in you'll need any kind of block. Look at the Hotchkis springs, they lower the car 1" and even guys that have lowered cars don't always use the hangers that provide the 1" drop.
As for the rear bar, it really depends. I know autoxcuda has one, but he disconnects it when he runs fast road courses because it's too much in higher load corners. Last I heard he was using 1.14" bars up front with Hotchkis springs in the back and Hotchkis sway bars. I know on my Duster with the 1.12" torsion bars and 121 lb/in AFCO's I benefit from the 7/8" Hellwig bar I run on the street, but the 121 lb/in rate is lower than the Hotchkis springs which are 130 lb/in. I also run a tire width stagger with 275's up front and 295's out back, and the additional grip in the back makes a sway bar more likely. But I haven't run on a road course to see if it's too much at higher speeds/loads, just that it works and seems well balanced on the street.
My Hellwig rear bar is also an E-body bar, it's 7/8" vs 3/4". 72BBswinger ran one with his 3" relocated springs, and although mine are only offset a 1/2" I decided to try it. That bar will take different end links to get them straight, the E-body bar is about a 1/2" different in width overall. I have a set of threaded tubes and heims with spacers for mine. It lines up perfectly with the new spring pockets with a 3" relocation, but it's a little off using the unaltered frame rails.
It was actually substantial, maybe an inch and a half? These pictures weren't intended to show the end link length, but you can see the difference between them. Also, I didn't cut the end links. As you said they're a bolt and sleeve arrangement and the unthreaded section of the bolt in the middle means you can't really cut the threaded end down and still have enough threads. So I used a different length bolt and a completely different sleeve as well. I may have shortened mine a smidge too much though, as you can see the leg of the sway bar isn't quite parallel to the strut rod.
First off I really kinda wonder if your car is going to be too low. Factory ride height was pretty level front to rear. And with an A-body 2" of lowering is really the sweet spot for the suspension geometry, it puts the LCA parallel to the ground which is about as good as things get for your camber curves. Lower than that and a couple things happen, one is that you don't have enough suspension travel. The other is that your header flanges end up too close to the ground for a lot of normal driving situations, like speed bumps and driveway transitions. On my car, which is lowered about 2", the driver's header flange is less than 4" off the ground. It's not terrible to deal with daily driving it, but I've run that as low as about 3.5" and at that point you drag the flange on damn near everything. Your drop spindles don't help with the suspension travel either, as I've mentioned before taking the travel limit off of the LCA's doesn't buy you much, because you immediately move it to the top of fenderwell. The tubular LCA gets you about 1" more than the factory LCA by itself because of the lower height profile, and that's enough to make the inner fender the limit before the LCA to frame. At full compression my spindle is only 13" from the top of the inner fender, so a 26" tire would rub at full compression. My tires are 25.6", so it's tight.
With the stock height springs de-arched 1.5" you'll be pretty low already, I doubt once the springs settle in you'll need any kind of block. Look at the Hotchkis springs, they lower the car 1" and even guys that have lowered cars don't always use the hangers that provide the 1" drop.
As for the rear bar, it really depends. I know autoxcuda has one, but he disconnects it when he runs fast road courses because it's too much in higher load corners. Last I heard he was using 1.14" bars up front with Hotchkis springs in the back and Hotchkis sway bars. I know on my Duster with the 1.12" torsion bars and 121 lb/in AFCO's I benefit from the 7/8" Hellwig bar I run on the street, but the 121 lb/in rate is lower than the Hotchkis springs which are 130 lb/in. I also run a tire width stagger with 275's up front and 295's out back, and the additional grip in the back makes a sway bar more likely. But I haven't run on a road course to see if it's too much at higher speeds/loads, just that it works and seems well balanced on the street.
My Hellwig rear bar is also an E-body bar, it's 7/8" vs 3/4". 72BBswinger ran one with his 3" relocated springs, and although mine are only offset a 1/2" I decided to try it. That bar will take different end links to get them straight, the E-body bar is about a 1/2" different in width overall. I have a set of threaded tubes and heims with spacers for mine. It lines up perfectly with the new spring pockets with a 3" relocation, but it's a little off using the unaltered frame rails.
