I finally got the caps off with a powerful 1/2" impact wrench. Never thought they'd come off, I guess being on there 13 years made them comfortable.
I had almost as much trouble getting the allen head bolts which hold the damper tubes in off. Used a LARGE, 2' long screwdrive to keep the dampers from spinning and hammered away with the impact wrench.
Piece of cake from there. Puleed the sliders and damper tubes out, used a seal puller to remove the dust cover. Then removed the c-clip and seals again with the seal puller. Cleaned them up, installed new seals and reassembled.
I think using the seal puller is "neater" then using pressure to "blast the seals out"?
Also, using your method how would you get he dust seals which are above the c-clip off without buggering them up. Only way I saw to do this was to pull the sliders which made them readily accessible.
Having seen ALL the components I'm not sure what the slider bushings you refer to are or look like. Are they metal and on the dampers?
At any rate, the only issue I had was with the caps and alllen bolts holding the dampers in which seemed to be semi welded in since they were never taken apart in 13 years.
Rick