In case anyone is looking for ball joint input, I did, as mentioned above, put the upper ball joint for the drivers side in the freezer, preheated the control arm knuckle with a propane torch, and used the lower control arm to press the joint in - 95% of the way. Waaaay easier than the other side, though it still required a bit more hammering and a bit o heat on the knuckle to get the last 5% done. Loosening the 24mm bolt with a standard box end wrench was a test in patience, but saved me the hassle of interference with the outer cv boot like i've seen some other forum threads discuss, when trying to use a socket for this job.
For me it was worth saving the $300-400 for the sealey ball joint press (and the likely long wait for it to ship from overseas) in getting this job done with a generic ball joint press, pickle fork, and some elbow grease. Couple pictures attached of the process on this arm.