Struts Suck!

Somewhere, somehow, I got the idea that changing a strut on my girlfriend's 82 Honda Accord would be easy.
NOT! I spent 6 hours, most of that just trying to get the spring properly compressed. When I finally got it off, I very nearly broke my hand. I had the spring compressor on the cap at the top (not actually on the spring). It slipped off, and the spring explosively decompressed, whipping a flap of skin off of my hand, making me yell FUCK! so loud my girlfriend came running out of the house expecting to see fountains o' blood.
After all that, there wasn't much improvement. Car still makes loud rumbling noises every time it hits a bump. Now I'm having to face the fact: Maybe there wasn't anything wrong with that strut in the first place, and I just wasted my time.
Are struts any easier to replace on the 4Gs? Or am I just an ignorant, crappy mechanic?
Flunky

they are a lil time consuming but not too hard

with air tools they are a breeze!

with the proper tools it should be pretty easy. Rusted bolts are the only thing that might slow you down.

yo its pretty damn easy....:)

if everything works the way it should then its easy