I just did my ball joints over Thanksgiving, total it took about 5 hours and cost about $80 for the 4 ball joints from Kragen, the quality may be questionable but they have a good warranty and around here they're the only parts store that has employees who know how to treat customers.

I could have done it a lot quicker if I had been a little more reckless with the sledge hammer pounding out the passenger side lower joint. After fussing for about 30 minutes I ended up heating the lower control arm with a torch to let it expand then whacked the ball joint a few times with the sledge hammer and it came right out. The driver's side came out with some extra angry pounding with a 3lb sledge and no torch, put a bottle jack as close to the ball joint as you can and whack it from above, if you've got a buddy that can hold the spindle with a pair of pliers that will help. Watch out for the wheel wells when you're swinging the hammer, I dinged mine a little bit, thankfully it was on the backswing so it doesn't show. My dad has an air chisel he let me use without one I'd add a couple hours, with a better air compressor and a chisel that didn't need to be re-ground after each rivet I'd subtract 15-20 minutes.

Since I ended up needing a pair of wheel bearings too, I'm glad I did the work myself, I ended up spending about $500 for the ball joints and bearings, I'm sure if I'd gone to a shop I'd have easily spent $800.