Johnny,
Quit drinking if you want, it's not a bad decision, but "never" is a long time when you quit something. It can make giving something up almost impossible when you attach the "never again" to the equation. I'm not promoting drinking or anything, I'm just saying maybe limiting yourself to a single beer once in awhile might make it less painful to change your habits. Glad your still with us 'cause I sure enjoy this thread so far.
I'm looking at doing some repair work to the infamous area where the control arm bolts to as well and Manic3 over on 3cylinders.com has a thread with a link to some pictures from when he did his repair. Maybe this will be useful to you and maybe you can share your repair progress over there in his thread too. Here's his thread:
View topic - "Metro Surgery" link • 3Cylinders.com
Hacksaw.