jack up the car on both sides and remove the wheels, squirt some wd40 on the pinch bolt at the bottom of the shocks and the bolt going through the bottom suspension arm on both sides, open the bonnet and squirt the 3 bolts that hold the top mount to the body.
once these have had a little time to soak its time to start undoing things.
take note the shocks on this car didn't have anything holding the flexi brake pipe to the shock but some have a 12mm headed bolt holding them in place, if your has don't forget to remove this before trying to pull your shock out
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loosen the bolt through the bottom arm then undo the pinch bolt and remove it from the strut, do this on both sides. now you can pull down on the bottom arm and remove the strut from the fork on both sides, if you work on both sides at the same time it will be easier than trying to do 1 side then the other.
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now remove the bolt you loosened earlier through the bottom arm and lift the fork up and over the driveshaft and put in to one side til later.
go up to the top mount and remove the three bolts holding it to the body with your arm in through the wheelarch holding the shock and lower it til it rests somewhere
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now you can go back underneath and lift the shock up and pull it out from the front of the driveshaft and place it to 1 side.
now do exactly the same on the other side.
once both shocks are off take your shiny new 1 (in this case courtesy of dino) and place it back up through the hole you took it out of and rest it somewhere where it wont slip.
take note that it WONT come out between the driveshaft and steering arm it HAS to come out towards the front of the car as below.
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like here
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but this is a nice place to rest it while you move position
now grab the shock through the wheelarch and lift it up through the top wishbone and through into the hole in the body and screw on loosely the 3 nuts you took off earlier and placed on the rain channel of the wing (remember)
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now go do the same on the other side.
brush a bit of copper slip around the bottom of the shock and and onto the pinchbolt of the shock and the bolt that goes through the bottom of the fork and bottom arm.
grab the fork you removed earlier and place up around the driveshaft and lift it up into place around the shock and slide the pinchbolt through and do it up loosely, now do the same on the other side.
go and get yourself a little scissors jack and place it underneath the bottom arm and jack up the arm until the bolt hole in the fork aligns with the hole in the bottom arm and slide the bolt through.
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now go and do the other side.
now all the bolts are in put a little tension on the jack against the bottom arm and do up the top mount bolts tight then the pinchbolt through the shock and then the bolt through the bottom arm.
refit your wheels and lower all the jacks and hey presto you just fitted yourself a set of front coilovers.
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now go pour yourself a cup off tea because you got the back to do next.
right as with the front firstly you need to jack up the back of the car on both sides, you can get away with leaving the rear wheels on for this end but it is easier with them off as it gives you slightly more room to juggle things about so off with the wheels and squirt some more of that lovely wd40 about on all the bolts you have to remove, thats the one through the bottom of the shock and the 2 nuts in the boot behind the trim on top of the wheel arches.
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undo the bolt through the bottom of the shock and the 2 nuts on top of the wheel arch on both sides of the car and lift up the shock and pull down on the suspension arm at the same time to give enough room to pull the shock out over the rear steering or tracking arm these are a bit fiddly as it is quite a tight fit but it will come over it, there is no need to remove the arm. it must come out towards the rear of the car.
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place it to 1 side and grab the new 1 and slide it back up from where the old one came again even more fiddly, once its roughly where its got to go reach through the wheelarch and grab the shock and poke it up through the wishbone into the mounting point and screw on the 2 nuts you removed earlier.
now go around the other side and do the same.
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get your scissors jack back out and jack up the bottom arm coat your bolt in copper slip and slide it through the shock and bottom arm and do up loosely, now go and do the other side.
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once both sides have all the nuts and bolts in place as with the front put a bit of tension on them and do them up tightly you can now put your wheels back on and replace your boot trim, happy days.
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next job to do now is get your tape measure out and set your ride heights but im not going into that here as it taken me longer to write this than it actually took to change them.
hope its of some use to somebody but remember this is a critical part of your car and if your in any doubt about your capability of doing this leave it to an expert.
Wish I had read this before I started!
indeed! They're famous! In the back of a van near you by now I imagine