.Today was interesting but progress made and without cutting holes in floors. Plan A of grinding or reciprocating sawing through the shocks at the tops was abandoned as space too tight. So Plan B involved welding the mole grips onto the piston such as it was wedged against the drop link to stop rotation.
Perhaps not the most elegant solution but you have to get inventive when the chips are down, yes I know its a bit redneck but what can you do?
One shock was corroded enough that we could see the piston, the other we used an exhaust cutting chain to cut the upper shroud and expose the piston.
Next was put the ring end of a 22mm combo spanner onto the top nut on the passenger side, one person reaching up and over to hold the spanner on the nut, while the other carefully put the chisel end of a 5ft crowbar into the open end of the spanner and lever against the axle until the nut cracked loose. No photos as it was a 2 person 2 hand manoeuvre. Got the nut off and hey presto shock gets removed.
Driver side the spanner just couldn't get a good enough grip as exhaust was just in the way. So got a socket on top but the top of shock stops a ratchet from being engaged into socket...........time for tools purchase.
Vortex socket set in half inch, allows stuff to pass through the centre with no problems, Halfords had it on special at £70, with trade card £56.....result. Worked like a charm and nut off in no time. Replaced springs which was easy enough.
Offered new shocks up but can't compress bushes enough to reveal thread to get top nut on, so compressed on bench, poured hot water over bushes (dunno if that'll achieve anything really) and leaving overnight hoping that they will have compressed a bit when slackened to give up a bit of thread.
Big noisy fan arrived today so we were reasonably cool even with the humidity.
So hopefully all back together tomorrow, system bled and job done.
