Thanks for posting this how-to, following it I replaced both front struts yesterday. The job took me like 4-5 hours, but most of the time was in releasing the strut from the spindle. I learned a few things, so let me add my lessons learned.
Strut Nut
Definitely loosen the (center) strut nut, before you remove the strut. Just a turn to take the torque off is fine. This will make the dissassembly of the coil (pictured on right), much easier once it is all out.
Strut removal from spindle
On removing the strut from the spindle. Hammering is required, but I think it can be minimized.
I also used PB Blaster along the perimeter of the strut, and I hammered away on a 2x4, but once the strut's flange cleared the spindle slot, repeated hammering made little difference - even though I could see that the strut was essentially loose but still inside the spindle, moving the spindle/rotor assembly you could see the strut slight pivot inside it's mount. What I later found was that repeated hammering, is that there was a point where on each pound, the spindle would just bounce back into the strut.
Realizing that, I finally released it, with either of these two methods:
1) Leveraging a small crowbar or long screwdriver on the spindle, and pushing up on strut, or
2) Using body weight to push/bounce the spindle assembly until the strut popped out.
Again this only works when you can see the strut is loose inside the spindle.
I imagine that in a shop, on lift, this is what they do, they pull/bounce down on the spindle to remove the strut.
Thanks again, hope that assists other as well.