Once the two small lower bolts are off, the shock is ready to come out. This shock had been on the truck since new (several years), so it needed a couple of slight taps with a hammer to break it free.

After that, the shock falls / comes down and is ready to be removed.

In this picture, you can see that since I did not jack the truck up, and I am doing this job on a flat driveway, there is not quite enough room for the shock to come all the way out or wiggle it sideways and down.

We can get around this in our next step.