i was doing a search on whether spring comperssors are necessary or not to remove stock springs off the strut assembly and i came up with some options:

1) the "Jeff S" method of loosening the shock tower bolt while the car is still on the ground then letting the spring uncompress itself when jacking up
2) using an impact wrench and allowing the assembly to pop out

has anyone tried jeff's method? sounds a lot safer

 

The first method can make it hard to remove from the car.
I use the gun and shoot it into the tire. I lay a towel over the strut so nothing would go shooting

 

-just pop it off, no need for a compressor...
-put the strut assembly in between the tire and wall with some space provided for the spring to fly off...

 

or you can make a run to autozone or was it pepboys, that rent out them coil spring compressors for free; just leave a deposit and get the whole deposit back when u return the tool=free.