Thanks again for all the help. I finally got the shock off tonight. I just shot some WD40 on the rubber grommets and wiggled them off the posts. Here are what the posts look like. Is this OE? or somebody's retrofit somewhere along the way?
(lower mounting stud pic) :
http://s1272.beta.photobucket.com/user/Mario572/media/100_1186.jpg.html
(upper mounting stud pic) : http://s1272.beta.photobucket.com/user/Mario572/media/100_1182.jpg.html