The suspen(sion) is killing us!

OK, so I don't know why, but I've come to the conclusion that Ford must've had a devious plan to drive shadetree mechanics mad when trying to work on the suspension of the original Mustangs.
First, way back when, we had a heck of a time removing the leaf springs, finally figuring out a way to cut the old bolts at the front to drop the springs down. That little endeavor took hours over a couple of days.
This past week, we had the same level of frustration trying to re-install the front coils springs. What looked like an easy "compress-insert-decompress" turned into multiple days of wrenching, fitting, and scratching our heads.

Good compressor on the left, baaaad compressor on the right

It started when we tried compressing our springs with the type of compressor that has two bolts and clamps onto the outside of the spring. We eventually realized that there was no way to fit the entire assemblage into the shock tower, so we moved on to plan B.
I sent Daniel down to the auto parts store to rent a compressor that fit inside the coil. The tool he returned with used a forked "plate" at the top to compress the spring. It did an adequate job of compressing, but again we couldn't fit it inside the tower with the fork thingy protruding out. Plan C. Do some Internet research, where we found out that we weren't alone in our struggles. We also determined that the only compressor that seemed to work for others was the type that fit inside the coil and used the hooks on either end to draw the spring together. Again to a different store, returning triumphantly with our final solution. More wrenching, sweating, cursing. We couldn't seem to get the darned thing compressed far enough without the end of the bolt protruding from the bottom of the coil. This seemed to prevent the coil from seating properly on the spring perch.
More research, a couple of phone calls to mechanics (who were perplexed that I was having so much difficulty). Daniel was getting really frustrated, and finally threw up his hands and went home. By the way, this was day two, and about three hours of wrestling with the the springs. Dejected, exhausted and frustrated as well, I plopped down on a bucket and called my wife to cry on her shoulder. She, of course, had no sympathy for us boys with our toys, but she's always encouraging and she often inspires me. As we talked, I sat there staring at the suspension geometry (yes, I was listening to her as well, at least a little) when it hit me.

Victory (finally)!

In our excitement to be reassembling the car, we had installed both the upper and lower control arms connected to the spindle. I could see that this prevented the upper arm from traveling to it's lowest possible position. With the last vestiges of my strength and patience, I unbolted the lower arm from the frame. The upper arm dropped down another two inches. Excited with the possibility of finally solving our dilemma, I cranked the compressor down once more. Fitting the spring time and again as I compressed further, I could see that if positioned just right, there would be just enough space to squeeze the spring in with the compressor bolt just millimeters away from hitting the spring perch. With a couple of well placed smacks with the heel of my hand, I was finally able to get it in. Victory!
I'm sure there will be many more frustrations and skinned knuckles to come, but hopefully there's more behind us than ahead of us.
We've moved on to installing the disc brake conversion, so the next post should and will be a lot more upbeat!