Air Cleaner issues

In my Barracuda, I had an Air-gap + 1" spacer on my small block. I used a 14" diameter air-cleaner with a 1 3\4 drop base. With regular nut on top it just barely cleared....I also dimpled my hood in the process of finding out just how much space I had :banghead:. That was one of my many excuses to get a fiberglass hemi hood :D, lol.