This write up was amazing, and the tip about turning the wheel to whatever side your doing to pop the ball joints out was priceless.
A few things to consider:
1. If you do the sway bar bushings at the same time, get longer bolts. I got I think 1.5" bolts from the hardware store and it made my life so much easier than fooling with trying to get that gap closed on the sway bar bushing bracket. If needed, I can go look at the bag to see the exact size/thread
2. If you plan to pop the ball joint off, pretty much plan to replace them. I got a pair of balljoints for $45ish from GermanAutoParts.com, and I'm glad I did. Turns out the passenger balljoint must been relatively new when I bought the car last June, but even still, I was able to pop the balljoint lose using the "turn the wheel, use the balljoint nut as a press against the CV housing until it pops", but once I got the nut almost all the way off, it stopped coming off the the balljoint just spun. This is where a saws-all comes in handy, I just cut both balljoints right underneath the nut so that the nut will slide out and the ball joint dropped. I burnt up 2 blades doing so since its such a hard metal, but it only took about 5 minutes worth of cutting, so it was definately worth it rather than removing struts and axles on either side, all to save $50
3. Use air tools. This would have been miserable trying to do without, especially consier all the control arm bolts were stuck, but a good impact just spun it right off.
4. Rent the balljoint press from Autozone. Its a $99.99 deposit, but you get it all back. Worth the time. To help save time, use the biggest ring and the dual adapter(both sides of adapter extend outward) on the BOTTOM of the control arm, than use the adapter that is concave on one side and put the concave side on top of the control arm bushing, this adapter is almost the identical size to the ring around the bushing and makes pressing it in much easier than trying to juggle another ring on top of the control arm as well. Then just lube lube lube and it will press in with no issues using a 3/4" wrench on the ball joint press handle.
5. If you order the balljoints and rear bushings, may as well get front bushings seeing as they are only $5/each, and if you don't need, well than at least you won't freak out once you get everything apart and find that your bushings are shot. Luckily, I didn't need mine, but I'm glad I bought them, at least I was prepared just in case SHTF.
6. Pre-soak everything with PB Blaster or whatever pentrating oil you use. I soaked everything once I got the car on jackstands, than got all my tools out, set up the compressor, than hit it once more before I started working.
Overall.. not a bad job. around 6 hours total, reality was it took 4 hours to do 1 side because I didn't know what tools to use, and what issues to expect, mostly the ball joint stole an hour just because I was trying everything to get it to spin off the last few threads. After I got it figured out, I tore the other side down and did everything in under 1.5 hours.
It felt as though I had every hand and power tool known to man out and in use for this, but honestly it was a very small tool list once I actually figured out what I needed. 12mm(3/8 drive), 13mm(3/8), 16mm(3/8 and 1/2) and 18mm(3/8 and 1/2) sockets and matching wrenches(having a good selection of offset wrenches and ratcheting wrenches really helped). Swivel adapter(3/8), 3" extension(3/8), BFHammer, Impact gun(1/2), Jigsaw, reciprocating saw, PBBlaster, Silicone spray, and I think that was it. Oh and a nice cold celebratory beverage for once you have finished, test drove it and realized the steering wheel doesn't convulse when you press the brakes anymore, and come home to park it until you are able to get it aligned. Then, commence beverage disposal.
