Expensive, but what price safety? The T 66P-5310-A coil spring compressor is quick, safe, and easy.

Here's a few places:

http://www.etoolcart.com/ford-coil-s...-otc7045b.aspx

http://www.unbeatablesale.com/doba10...=24-56296046-2

http://fordspecialtools.com/Detail.aspx?id=144

http://www.toolsource.com/front-coil...8jumbhdv97p564

http://www.shopwiki.com/_Front+Coil+...0522&s=716422&

 

Not only safety, but that thing will work a long time and probably not break anything. The one I use is a $40 item, and its good for about one spring, maybe two before it starts to strip the threads and it always slips a bit putting it on the spring. I think the $330 price tag of the one 2+2 shows is worth it if you are going to do more than one car, or if you need to pull the springs out to cut them for ride height adjustments. It looks easy to use and its obviously built from quality stuff if its $300. I think my fingers or any body part is worth more than $300, and replacing a fender usually costs more too.

Thanks for that link, when I get the $$ for one Im getting one. Its more than a good idea for me since I have 20+ vehicles I need to rebuild, all of them have coil springs.

 

A friend of mine bought one from Ford back in the 70's, and since then it has been used on hundreds of springs, and still works perfectly.

 

Still, it's a hard purchase for the DIY'er that's only going to do it once, maybe twice. I'm the kind of guy that likes to buy oddball tools 'just in case,' but I can't justify one of those right now. The hook/fork kind the OP is using works ok as long as the threads are intact.