Painting shocks

Hello everyone.
I'm still kinda new here and don't have much experience in modeling.
My english writing also isn't great but i'm hoping to improve both.
I already learnt allot reading everones posts and watching your pics.

My question is how do you paint your shock absorbers ?
Is it just a steady hand or are there some tricks to get it right.

steady hand for me

Also I tried to cut masking tape in THIN stripes and place it inside the coil (shocks painted first) and it worked. Just make sure to really go over the tape with a toothpick so that paint doesn't flow under it.

Your English looks pretty good to me !!!

Just a steady hand !!!
Paint the shock first and then the spring last with a very fine paint brush.
Another idea...which i do if i want to do a really good detail job is to cut off the end of the shock and sand/cut the whole spring off. Then you get a really small spring which i get from Hardware stores and paint it and cut it to the lengh needed. Then super glue the top of the spring back on.
Lots of mucking around but will worth it .

Whenever possible i cut them up and use real springs as PMan mentioned above. Its not very difficult and is certainly worth it. These are some i have altered for my CLK-GTR, the springs i used were from a pen, i think, and im fairly confident from all the reference i have that they are more to scale than the original molding.
http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/307038shox1.jpg

However if u feel this might be a bit too tricky or just dont want the hassle then this scan from Tamiya's model mag demonstrates the best way ive seen for painting them. Hope these help!!!???
http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/693966shox.jpg

Thanks for the reply's.
I will try out some of your suggestions and find out what works best for me.