No need to over-think this procedure. Get an impact wrench and 17mm socket and you're in business, it works for all tire lugs and all the nuts and bolts for the shock.

1. open trunk remove side plastic covers.
2. impact the two nuts off each shock, pry off rubber gaskets, discard
3. jack car by diff. until both wheels off the ground, remove wheels
4. remove lower control arm plastic covers, 2 x 10mm, then it snaps off
5. impact off the lower shock mount bolts, you'll need a 17mm wrench to hold
6. compress old shocks down from the top (I used a ball joint separator and pried)
7. lift out shocks
8. place new shocks, bottom end in first, put bolt through but do not tighten
9. muscle each shock down and put the pointy end up through the hole
10. lower car onto a blocks supporting the lower control arms, to seat the upper mount, put most of the weight of the car on the blocks
11. tighten lower mounts, torqued to 50 Nm
12. hop in trunk, on each shock put new rubber gasket on the pointy end, then metal washer over that
14. on each shock put on first nut, tighten to 16 Nm, don't let the pointy end rotate as you tighten, grab the tip of it with vice grips. The rubber squashes down quite a bit.
15. on each shock put on second nut, use a 2nd wrenches to hold first nut firm, as you snug the second nut down to 30 Nm.
16. jack car up again and pull out blocks and put wheels back on, torque lugs to 80 lb-ft.

Sometimes I'm metric, sometimes standard.

__________________
Cheers!
Scott McPhee

1987 300D