Holy fuck, that was rough. The guides and the videos show the uppers and lowers pulling apart easily. I had to clamp the lowers in the vice and use the uppers as a slide hammer and repeat the bang bang bang process for 5-10 minutes, with the seal moving almost imperceptibly as it walked it's way out.
Putting the upper bushing back in took a trick, it is a split ring, and is expanded too big to fit in the recess unless you compress it. I found that I could take some brake bleeding hose and cut off about 4" of it, and hammer it in with a punch between the bushing and the lowers. This worked to compress the bushing, and I could then place the washer over it and hammer it down about halfway, and then pulled the washer and hose out and then drive it home.
Tomorrow I get to get back at it and tackle changing the rear tire.
I changed my tires once. And said fuck that to doing it again. It's too bad a local shop isn't an option. I would take the wheels off and take them to the shop to get new treads, then bring them home and install. After that first change I never regretted the extra $$ to have the shop do it.