are the fronts just as easy as the rears?

No, the front doesn't use shocks, the front uses a strut system in place of an upper arm. For the most part they are a "unbolt the old, bolt in the new" operation, but you would want to get your alignment rechecked after installing them because it might affect camber...

My rears looked fine... but I still had to cut them off... road salt you know... yuk..

once you get the old ones off, you are good to go.  As a matter of fact, I just did my DD pickup too... had to cut those off too.. 

My front struts came off fine.. go figure..


Just be ready with a die grinder or torch or something if it looks like you aren't going to be able to get the top nuts off the rear shocks.

It's the front struts that will make the big difference in handling though.. the rears don't do much, compared to the struts.

and the stock shock equiv is Crown Vic

or is that just for lifts?

Only for lifts with Crown Vic shocks

My rears looked fine... but I still had to cut them off... road salt you know... yuk..

I had to cut mine off too, I used an angle grinder on the passenger side, top nut and bottom bolt, on the drivers side top the sparks were going in towards the gas tank, and since I could smell gas, I decided to use a hack-saw, it was actually pretty quick, and no explosions!