Need help of expert to avoid injury.....As straightforward as removing spring bolts may appear, experience tells me it's probably not.  I'm looking for a tried-and-true and, above all, safe way of removing and replacing these. Will the weight of the car be enough to compress an unbolted spring in order to add a longer one? Any special tools to help this operation? I want to lower the rear end but not at the extent of getting hurt or maimed  .

JR

P.S. I forgot to mention it's a stock 9-leaf spring.

The bigges issue with doing this is keeping the jack from being kicked out due to the arc of the spring. If you take a big C clamp and position it next to the jack on the high side and jack the spring up SLOWLY so you are sure it will hold, the bolt should be easy enough to replace.

Did I mention a BIG  clamp?

Obviously, you'll have the car up on jackstands first.

  JR, after doing alot of Vette springs in the springshop make yourself a " Corvette Spring Tool".Take a piece of 1/4 flatstock 1 1/2 wide 16 or 18 long.On one end weld a piece of 1 1/4 pipe 2'' long.Place the one end on the edge of the spring plate the end with the pipe welded on will be by your spring bolt.Place a bottle jack in the pipe and jack it up,very safe.The length may be longer, didn't go to my garage to measure it.

  Dave

  JR, after doing alot of Vette springs in the springshop make yourself a " Corvette Spring Tool".Take a piece of 1/4 flatstock 1 1/2 wide 16 or 18 long.On one end weld a piece of 1 1/4 pipe 2'' long.Place the one end on the edge of the spring plate the end with the pipe welded on will be by your spring bolt.Place a bottle jack in the pipe and jack it up,very safe.The length may be longer, didn't go to my garage to measure it.

  Dave

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Brilliant!!  

Thanks for the great tips, guys.

JR