Pontiac Owners Club UK

I'll soon be needing to remove the front coil springs from the front clip of my Bullnose.Know how to do it with weight of complete car on springs (ie,trolley jack under wishbone etc) But was wondering if they'll be enough weight on the springs for this method to work with car stripped down to just bare bodyshell and bare front clip with no weight of doors,glass,interior,engine,trans or anything forward of bulkhead ?
Need to remove springs before I unbolt front clip from body so I can then strip rest of suspension from front clip and then clean and paint everything

probably not. try bolting some ground anchors to the floor and use a ratchet strap or something to pull the car down. basically acting like the weight of an engine. then jack up the arm and insert compressors etc.

i did my '74 corvette and I think the front suspension is practically the same.

I used a trlley jack as you suggested just to take up the slack on the last bit of travel of the lower arm/spring and put a chain around the sprng etc in case of disaster to stop it flying off somewhhere.

then undo the inner pivot bolts and free the lower arm, then lower the jack slowly until all compression gone from the spring and lower arm is completely free.

However, with the lower weight you have, the other option is to star similar to above, remove shock and use an internal type spring compressor and then seperate the lower a-arm. I used this method on reversal/refit, but the former for removal.

with the shock out you could use a length of studding/threaded bar down the centre to control it I would have thought

Thanks guys. Thought of using length of threaded bar when I got around to removing springs tonight but didn't have any handy. Springs are now off as is all suspension and front clip. Used a ratchet strap around spring to stop it going anywhere while I undid the lower wishbone bolts. Whole front of car did jump up a few inches when I took the bolts out but it worked ok. Will either use treaded bar when I refit springs or might wait until I get the weight of the engine and trans back in car,lots of parts to clean and paint before then though