[Christ]

Ew...

If you just loosen the nuts on the top of the struts, like you're just removing the strut from the top hat, you'll be able to jack it up to release the spring pressure (taking the springs off). You'll also have to remove the lower control arm from the chassis to allow you to swing it down and around enough to get clearance for the spring to fully decompress.

To reinstall them, You set them on the strut with the top hat still bolted to the strut tower, center the spring in the top hat, mount the strut to the strut fork (lower mount), then slowly let the jack down until the strut's shaft pokes up through the top hat. In order to mount the strut in the fork, you may have to release the upper ball joint to gain more travel with the knuckle. It (the strut shaft) will probably go in slightly crooked at first, pushing the bushings out of the top hat, which are easy enough to replace.

It's a fairly straight forward process, honestly.