Look at the compressed spring. The compressed coil spacing remains the same after shortening. For example, if you have 1-1/2" (I just pulled a number out of my arse) from coil-to-coil, when you cut a single coil you shorten the compressed spring 1-1/2". But since the spring is not riding on the ball joint, that's not how much you lower the car. Measure the distance from the lower control arm pivot to the ball joint (13.5"?). Then measure the distance from the lower control arm pivot to the center of the lower control arm spring perch. The ratio of these two numbers (between 1.5 and 2?) is also the ratio of the change in ride height to the change in compressed spring length. For giggles, let's say it's 2. If we cut 1 coil off our example spring, we change the compressed spring length 1-1/2" and drop the car 3".
Working backwards, if we want to drop the car 1", we divide 1" by 2 and find we should shorten the compressed spring by 1/2". How many compressed coils makes 1/2"? 1/2" divided by 1-1/2" per coil or 0.5" divided by 1.5" per coil = 0.33 coils or 1/3 of a coil.
Use your own numbers, but I think it's clear that cutting a whole coil is too much. This approach ignores nonlinear effects due to changes in geometry, but it's pretty close. When in doubt, cut a little less now and a little more later, cuz like my mama used to say, "Boy, you can always cut if off, but you can't put it back."
I'm still not a fan of cutting stock springs because they're not stiff enough. If you cut 10% off of a weak spring, you make it 11% stiffer, but that's still weak. The magnitude of
suspension motions is almost the same and you're closer to the ground. You're more likely to shear off that #1 Hedmann header pipe.