Well my question, in hindsight turned out to be a pretty stupid one. This job is a piece of cake. Simply required my jacking up the side of the car ahead of the rear wheel after having loosened the lug nuts and removing the rear wheel. I then lowered the A-frame onto a jack stand to take the tension off and collapse the shock a bit. Three bolts to remove; the two 10 mm bolts on that hold the top bracket into place are easily accessed in the wheel well after removing the rear wheel and the bottom thru-bolt that fastens the lower end of the shock to the A-frame is removed with an 18mm socket. No need to support the car on anything but the jack as you never need to go under the car with anything but your arm to remove the lower bolt. Both rear shocks were done in under 30 minutes, including putting the tools away.
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John Brabant 2012 XC70 T6 Platinum