Suspension Lift

When i bought my 1997 Forester 2.0 GLS it had lowered suspension, which was terrible the car was scraping over everything, it was very bumpy and the front wheels rubbed against the inner wheel arch making odd sounds. I bought a pair of used front shocks with standard springs for £60, the 2 rear shocks were hard to get so i bought two new springs at about £70 The car has been raised 3 inches which was needed to take it off road which was why i bought the car. Since I'm not using the car on the road very often i don't care about wheel alignment or camber if your car is going back on the road after this sort of work have the wheels aligned, otherwise it may not handle right or will wear its tyres very quickly. A tip before removing the front camber bolt is use a marker to mark its position then that should mean that when its put back the same setup is maintained. If you want to get coil springs compressed go to someone with a hydraulic spring compressor i used the small portable type spring compressors last year and they are dangerous i got smacked in the chest by one and broke 3 ribs A mechanic up the road had a hydraulic spring compressor and was able to change the springs in a matter of minutes. Putting the back springs in is tricky you might want to have another person lift the strut while you guide it into place and put the bolt in otherwise its tricky but not impossible to get in. Lining up the lower bolts for the rear struts would be easier with portable spring compressors compressing the springs but i don't like using them anymore, however its possible to align the bolt holes with a strong screwdriver then its a case of putting the bolt in and using a hammer to tap it on through. Any comments, suggestions or advice on this is welcome.