I support the car on jackstands under the frame section behind the wheel, just after the curve where it starts to straighten out under the floor boards. You could also put them under the front of the frame under the front bumper mounts. I prefer to put them behind so they arent' in the way for using a floor jack.

Remove the wheel. Put the floor jack under the lower control arm and apply pressure, just to the point of the car wanting to raise off the jackstand. This loads (compresses) the coil spring doing some of the work for you. Remove the two bottom shock nuts, then remove the top shock bolts and the shock tower cap nuts and the cap. Pull the shock out.

Install the coil spring compressor. Mine is a long 1" thick threaded rod that goes down thru the spring just like a shock absorber and bolts onto the coil spring perch (the bottom of my compressor is an old shock). Then a top plate goes over the shock tower, followed by a washer and a large nut. As I turn the nut down against the shock tower the threaded rod pulls up on the coil spring perch.

Next I take off off the two nuts that hold the coil spring perch to the upper control arm. Slowly release the jack under the control arm, allowing the suspension to lower away from the coil spring that is being securely held tight up inside the shock tower. The two studs from the coil spring perch will come free of the control arm, and the control arm and spindle will lower down out of the way. Slowly loosen the nut at the top of the compressor and the spring will gradually de-compress and come out.

Install is just reversing the procedure. It is helpful to have a couple large screwdrivers or prybars to turn and coax the coil spring saddle back into the control arm.

If you get the type of compressor that mounts on the outside of the spring, be very careful!!! If the arms are too close, the tension of the coil spring can cause the spring to bow and suddenly the arms can jump towards each other. At the very least you'll need to change your shorts after that happens!

You should replace the coil spring perch while you are in there, otherwise you'll one day have to do this all over again! An inside compressor won't hurt the paint on the springs. SnapOn used to make one and Ford shows one in the original 66 Shop Manual. I made mine from threaded rod, a shock tower cap from a 71-73, and welded on the bottom plate that was cut off an old shock. Got the idea from the back pages of Tony Branda Shelby & Mustang catalog.

Good Luck!

A week or two ago I tried to find an old style internal spring compressor to buy locally and not only did nobody have one, none of the parts guys even knew what they were! I am going to start charging these parts houses a fee for training their countermen if this keeps up!