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I think Andrew is thinking of coil springs.

If the hinge is off the car already, clamp it in a vice. Using a small pry bar (or other suitable tool), pry the hooked end of the spring off the pin. Just be careful.

The pin at the center of the spring is peened to keep it from sliding off. Using a small cutoff wheel, you can cut/grind the the peen until the spring will slide off the pin. It won't take much.

After the new spring is installed I just put a little spot weld (blob) where the peening was removed on the pin to keep the spring from sliding off.

Then, it's pretty easy to grab the hook end of the spring with some channel-lock pliers and hook it over the outer pin.

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This is how you do it. Clearence the center peen first, then clamp the spring and remove the hook part and slide it all up and out.