Doing the upper front mounts got interesting right away, 125 PSI on a 1/2 inch impact would not touch the wheel lugs. 18 inch extension with 2 foot pipe and a big bang with each lug, how it didn't crack the hub I just don't know. Most of the things are a known and I will only go into some interesting problems and different thing's I tried because of some suggestions from a member. I'm sure he meant well and had success by only removing the ball joint to remove the shock tower. I could spend a lot of time giving you my efforts, but a waste of time (2 hours). It will works "IF" you jack the car up by the lower control arm and freeze the springs with clamps, release the control arm and hope you used thin clamps.
Now don't give up on removing the ball joint, I have a hammer chisel with a punch fitting, so I didn't have to use the splitter and take a chance on tearing the rubber boot, popped right out and then had to remove the A arm. On the other side I followed the norm and removed the top A arm.
I had hoped the bottom shock bushing would be good, NOT, really soft (new one is not to my liking, but better). Ordered new shocks $103 verses $134 for bushing and a no brainer. After lots of research, I could pay from $100 to $235 for the same shock. I found the bushing in England for 15 pounds and 6 pounds shipping about $40 dollars but had some concern on the 12 year old shock. I might order some for my car just in case I could salvage a couple of them out of the four I'm pulling off. The boots and bumps stops were junk and Advance could have them in next day (SB101) $21 for one side. Cheaper was available but another delay.
The press made it a easy install on the mounts from one of our sponsors (SNG) and nice they are, one small problem that was major to me and I will say this solution may help someone in the future. The bolts have a heavy coat of paint and I was only using a 1/2 inch speed wrench and noticed it was getting difficult and nothing was getting tight on the mount, I was jumping around so to make sure to get a good even seat and baaaang the bolt on the brace snapped. I used a vise grip on the bolt and just kept going over the broken bit to get the nut off. So looking at a sinking ship, I was going to turn the shock but would have a short stud, not good enough. Pulled the shock, took it apart and pressed the broken stud out. They have a small weld and I had to clean the hole up. I then pressed one out of the old mount studs and did a small tack weld, just enough to hold it, cleaned it up and here we go again. Then it worked great. I wire brushed all studs and added a drop of oil, easier but still had lots of paint fibers all over the place. I will dip them in paint stripper next time or run a die over them. SNG, sorry but if someone used air tools it could really be a disaster.
Back to the task at hand, getting the A arms back with all the washers, on the side the ball joint was attached was not fun, I used a 3/8 inch sharpened rod to hold the washers of the second side in the top of the hole and the bolt slide right in, but having to struggle with and the hold rotor and stuff made it a true pain. The other side with the ball joint removed was easy to control the A arm and install all, the rotor and caliber were held together with bungee cords in place during this time, attached ball joint, tie down a couple of wires and a old English saying "Bob's your uncle", finished.
When I pressed the shock towers, I drilled a 1/2 inch hole in the center of one of the plates and put one of the studs down inside, turned the shock so the hole is facing you and go back the same way and all should be lined up. Don't do anything but hand tighten the top shock nut and iit will be loose enough to use a bar to turn the lower shock mount in place.
I hope this will help and give some direction when things go bad. Not a job for the faint at heart.

Wayne

 

Ditto on the painted threads. Way too much paint to get the nut on without buggering the threads. Had a friend bead blast them and problem solved. Nuts went right on.

I was able to remove and replace by taking the upper wishbone loose and swiveling it out of the way. Once I had the coil, shocks and mount assembled, it took maybe 30 minutes per side.