I had seen that, but I didn't have the $ to invest that much in upper links. I think they look great and bet they function better than mine though.
Here we go...
I spent some quality time under an R50 at my favorite pick n pull and got these for $11/each (was that too much?):
Then cleaned them up for modification:
I love my $12 Hazard Frought grinder. A quality wire wheel does quick work:
Then off to my friend's garage where I went to town cutting/grinding to get ready for him to weld (new bolt/nut) while I drilled/tapped for the zerk fitting:
All welded and assembled with a little anti-seize on the threads until I could grease them up:
I ended up purchasing some new bushings and having them pressed in at my friends shop. He did it for free cause he said it was a "fun challenge" - what? Apparently these are harder to remove than I thought they'd be, even after reading horror stories on here. Once I got them back I rattle-canned some flat black paint on them.
A big thanks to Rob (Alkorahil) for catching an ordering mistake and getting the right number of bushings to me. And thanks for the coffee mug!
I pulled the old ones off (the bushings didn't look so good on either side), measure/estimated length for realigning my driveshaft, and voila (aka "wa la"):
I originally thought about putting the end with the zerk on the lower/axle side for ease of servicing, but I think I like the "gravity feed" of the greased end being higher. After driving just 1 day there is visible grease on the threads, almost no "play" in the nut/bolt interface, and I'm really happy.
After looking at receipts and paying my friend $20 for his hour of TIG welding, I think these were just about $95 (not counting time at the JY or time prepping with the wire wheel).
So the best part is the vibration is now non-existent.