Found a nice set of aftermarket struts and springs that i'd like to buy, but they don't have the tops of the shock, supposed to use the stock tops.

I've pulled stock shocks apart before to get the tops off, but I fear for my life every time I have to use those spring compressors.

So, was wondering if anyone has ever tried this approach:
I was thinking of leaving the car on the ground, pulling off the 3 strut bolts (14's i believe) and the big middle one (17 or 19 can't remember), then slowly jacking the car up allowing the spring to decompress itself [safely hopefully], then simply tilting it down and pulling the spring and top out.
Would this be safe and effective?

 

that works, and how i do it.

only thing is you have to remember, when you do this, you'll have to contend with the forks on the front, and lca for the rear. as in you won't have room to angle it unless you unbolt some other things.

the way i did the front was to unbolt the upper control arm from the knuckle to get more room. to get more room, unbolt the sway bar.

for the rear, i unbolted the rear upper arm from the trailing arm, and removed the sway bar to get more room

shouldn't take you more then 4hrs if this is your first time. i've gotten it down to 2hrs for fronts and rears.

this is also stating that you don't run into the dreaded lca bolt seizing into the lca. then you have to cut and get ether new bushing, or a new lca.

 

I personally dented my wheel well doing it that way do not underestimate the power of a released spring

 

you didn't let the spring release slowly did you?