I assembled the struts from the parts supplied with the AviPro kit, as well as the XAM-7 rod ends purchased separately.
I spent the majority of the time deburring and smoothing the edges of the machined parts. The polyethylene o-rings need to not be scored when you assemble these, so they don't leak. I used 120 grit emory cloth that comes on a roll 1" wide to burnish all of the edges until they were smooth. Then I cleaned everything very well just before assembly. I used Dow Corning Molykote O-ring Lube on the o-rings for assembly. From the plans you can see that the distance from the base of the cylinder to the snap-ring groove is 8-3/8". So I compressed the spring to just less than that to be able to get the snap-ring in. I used a 3/4 to 1" pipe bushing and a 1/2-20 X 1-1/2" bolt to compress the spring. I guess you could use a large socket as the manual suggests, but you'll need a longer bolt for most sockets. My hardware store was out of 2" long bolts and this bushing worked great.
I didn't put the hydraulic oil in just yet - really didn't see a reason to since I'll have the struts off a few more times to cover the landing gear, etc.
