RalphP nails it all. I will mention that I pressed out the upper ball joints, knowing full well they were threaded in. It seemed to ruin the threads on the old ball joint, leaving the control arm threads more or less intact. Even though it turned out okay and the new ball joints threaded in fine and torqued down fine (HOWEVER, I still haven't driven the truck so it remains to be seen if they actually ARE fine), if I were to do it again I'd probably buy that socket and have a shop do it. What I did to try to loosen them is remove the crossbar and bushings, put the ball joint flats in a vise, and put a big pry bar through the bushing holes and crank like hell. It didn't work. Felt like I was gonna bend the arm and I could even hear the bench creaking, wanting to pull out of the studs in the wall.

In any case, I threaded the new ones in and put four tack welds in. If they fail, well I know it's time for new arms.