A pair of 16mm sockets made quick work of this pinch bolt.
A stout screwdriver can be used to coax the bolt out of the upright,
toward the rear of the car.
A sharp whack to the underside of the control arm popped the ball joint out of the suspension upright. The same technique dislodged the rear arm as well.
Here the ball joints have been removed from the upright. Both joints were shot and needed to be replaced, which requires the replacement of the whole arm.
The upper mounting plate is secured to the chassis with three 16mm bolts, which are visible in a triangular configuration within the engine compartment at the top of the shock tower and indicated by red arrows.
Use a wrench and/or socket to remove the three bolts and the accompanying washers. The forward-most bolt is obscured slightly by the wiring emerging from the ECU enclosure as seen here.
The only remaining fastener holding the shock/spring/upper mount assembly in place is the long 19mm bolt and nut securing the bottom of the shock to the front lower control arm. The shock mounts to the forward lower control arm with a nut and bolt that must be removed to extract the strut assembly. Use two 19mm wrenches or sockets.
When the nut is off you can slide the bolt out to the rear, but the rear lower control arm is in the way and prevents its removal. I tried rotating the front lower control arm a bit counterclockwise along its axis, using the still-mounted strut assembly as a lever. This gave enough clearance to remove the bolt. During reassembly, you might try reversing the position of the bolt and nut to avoid this problem next time. You may need to disconnect the front sway bar from the link to do this.
Slip the bottom of the shock off of the control arm and remove the assembly from the wheel well.
As mentioned, I had already removed the two top nuts securing the spring/shock assembly to the upper mount before removing it from the car. This is what you’re left with once the upper mount is freed. I³e already removed one of the control arm bolts, as seen to the left. wire gauge chart