The other day as my wife was turning into a parking space a guy in a 300SE backs up and parks his right rear corner into the driver's side rear wheel. It bent the upper and front suspension links and the swaybar pretty badly. The left rear wheel is canted inward at about a 10-12 deg. angle and toed-in almost the same. I was planning to replace all the suspension links, all the suspension, subframe and differential rubber mounts, shocks, rear flex-disk, transmission and engine mounts anyway sometime in the near future, so I guess now is the time. For the suspension repair, including dropping the subframe and some minor dent repair I'm hoping to get about $1500 from his insurance co. I've got a few questions on R&R'ing the subframe. First, do I definitely need the spring compressor before I remove the subframe, or can I loosen and lower it on a jack (or two), decompressing the springs in the process, or is there the danger of the springs flying out? What if I used a couple of loops of chain to keep them with the lower control arm? I'm just trying to avoid having to rent the compressor twice. Btw, I'm assuming the upper spring seat is part of the chassis, not the subframe. Is this right? Next, I figure that it's probably easier to disconnect the driveshaft and drop the subframe with everything attached and then just rebuild it off the car. Is this the best way to go? Can anyone offer any hints or tips on doing this job? Any stumbling blocks I'm likely to run into or things I should watch out for?

Thanks,

Gary