How do you fit the springs?

[aerosam]

Ok, I bought the front shocks and springs (assembled) cheap of ebay. When I fitted them to the car, it sank right to the bottom of the shock travel. Clearly the springs are not strong enough. (they were suspected to be only 100lb)

So I tried to remove them using normal spring compressors, and found that I couldn't get a very good grip on the springs as the compressors are designed for larger general automotive springs.

I eventually got one off but found I had done a little damage to the shock tube, still seems to work fine though. The spring free length is 10", I'm thinking that they should actually be 8" right? This should make it easier to fit new ones - right? How do you compress the springs without damaging the shock?

I'm not going to do anything to the other till I know I can do it without damaging it.

Help!

Sam.