Done. Really wasn't that bad even though I did have to completely remove the shock and spring.
Here is the driver's side new arm. This is Mevotech, made in China. Not sure what the OEM was for the originals but I will see if there is a stamping.
Loosened the 18mm nut. Then the ball joint started spinning so I held it back with a 5mm allen wrench. Came right apart. This is not a deep taper style. It is more like a dish or cone. Again, the upper ball joint on a design like this does not see much load. The bushings were preloaded for ride height so it wanted to spring up but it wasn't going to go anywhere.
Next I loosened the lower shock yoke nut. I think it was 24mm. 133 lb-ft on that one. It takes the entire load of the shock and spring so no wonder it is substantial. It took a lot of continuous impacting but came off eventually. After that, I began removing the 5 upper shock mount bolts. There is one on the side of the tower near the master cylinder. Don't forget to disconnect the MR shock plug. Also disconnect the ride height sensor from the control arm. It took some prying to get the shock off the yoke bolt but I got it.
After that it was just a matter of playing games to get the lower shock piece untangled from the wheel speed sensor harness, without denting my fender/wheel well. Some jostling around and turning the knuckle over to the side later, and I got it out.
I took these pics to make note of where the arm was installed and torqued.
New control arm installed. It would have been more work I think to remove the shock and spring from the shock mount, so I don't regret getting the cheaper control arms vice the whole assembly.
And here is the passenger side installed...
And the shock plugged back in.
That side bolt was annoying. Very close to the battery. I was able to do it slowly with an open end/box end wrench. Kind of tedious. I couldn't torque this one so I made it tight. 83 lb-ft is the spec anyway.