I should have paid more attention to what Scooby Fan suggested - i ended up removing the lower bolts to get the dang thing off - much easier.
I then had more space and ability to remove the nuts...which certainly helped with leverage etc, but i did have some casualties. Both hex ends were rounded internally and i mangled one of the rubber boots.
I had tried doing some relief cuts in one end to use a larger screwdriver to anchor vs. the bolt - that partially worked. The final solution was to just use some narrow vice grips the hold behind the bar flange and slowly remove the nuts. (thus the torn boot)
Once they were both off i used a wire brush on the dremel to clean off the threads and then re-attached and removed a few times to work it so it was eventually easier to re-install.
The install went fairly quickly as expected, and the removal as expected caused a cut or two and lots of swearing.
So, for those looking to do this, take the thing off with the end links attached and then figure out how to remove the nuts easily. I will now be shopping for new end links for an eventual re-install.
Test drive will be soon.