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....Either lack of planning or project creep got me.

I have my frame pretty much stripped, leaf springs and axle are still in, and front suspension is also still attached. A Arms, kingpins, sway bar and pitman arm.
In order to really make this car nice, I should send the frame out to get sandblasted and then paint it, which means I need to take out the front springs.
I had rebuilt the front suspension a few years ago, so am familiar with removing the springs...(Did it with a floor jack last time no problem) But now that there is essentially no weight on the suspension, how can I safely remove the front springs? Park a car on top of the end of the frame?
Coil Spring compressor?
Thanks for any advice.

i chain the floorjack to the crossmember-hope it helps

I would use the coil spring compressors. ...not to expensive, and it may not be the only time that you use them.

Good luck!

Mark

The springs may be too thick to safely use with a coil spring compressor, and the compressor may not be strong enough to handle it. I would be very careful if you go that route.

I got everything apart, and didn't loose any fingers or eyes in the process. I used three tie downs and bound the floor jack to the frame and then compressed the spring, removed the lower outter joint of the A arm, and everything went well. The first side I was a little nervous the spring would shoot out and go flying across the workshop, but it was all non-dramatic. Except I broke one of the clips that holds the sway bar onto the lower A arm....have to track down one of those...
I don't think there is room anyplace to get a coil spring compressor on the front coils here. A Macpherson strut where one would normally use a spring compressor has more space around the spring than these packards.....

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easy way to remove the spring safely and reinstall it without the weight of the motor, is to get a threaded rod long enought to go in place of the shock absorber, make a 1/2 inch plate to go across the bottom of the lower control arm, do not use the original bottom shock mount. just tighten the rod up enought so the rubber bumper is not compresses, then you can remove the upper control arm bolts, and loosen the threaded rod off till you have no tension, rod should be about 8 inches longer than the distance from the lower control arm to the top of the shock mount.

Sand Blasting is the easiest way to clean the frame up, done a few so far, about 1200 lbs of sand over 2 day to clean the complete chassis.

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1200 lbs of sand? you gotta be kiddin' me! hope that was a typo. Good idea with the threaded rod through the shock mountings....

I've no personal experience here but I've been told many times by both amateur and especially professional restorers that you NEVER sandblast any assembly with machined fine-fitting parts like front suspensions, differentials, transmissions, etc. and parts that require lubrication. The caution always was that no matter how well you try to seal off things, sand will find it's way into things like a differential and quickly destroy bearings, gear sets, etc.

Not trying to throw cold water here, just passing on some advice I've been given very vocally over the years.

I agree about sand getting everywhere. I would only media blast parts that are completly dis-assembled.

I have to admit, I kind of cringed, too, when I saw 54Packman1's first photo.