Oh no, I did have something WAY wrong. I thought I had gotten away with it (meaning nothing damaged) but when I got the car back together, I took it for its first ride. Got about a mile or so when I heard a pop and then the car veered off the road a bit. I was going slow thankfully. The tie rod nut that secures it to the subframe and backed itself off. That caused the lower arm to be able to flex and, as it turns out, bend. I was able to find all the bits on the road and that is when I noticed the nylock nut had no nylon material on it. Wonderful. So, I didnt notice at the time that the lower arm had bent. I had the car aligned after all of that and the tech didnt see it either (which I am not all that surprised as I wasnt wildly keen on the place) so here we are.

A pinned joint allows rotation around one axis and prevents translation in two others.  To a first approximation, the lower arm should just rotate around the 2A4362 pin, nothing should be trying to push or pull or twist it out of that plane with a lot of force.  Once you attach the tie rod and introduce some caster, yes it does now sweep through a slightly tilted plane, but the rubber bushings squirm to allow this.  You have something else way wrong if it bent from just driving. 

I am reluctant to do that with such a critical piece for fear of it weakening. 

Can't you apply some heat from an oxy-acetylene unit and bend it back?

Stripped my subframe and noticed that one of my adjustable lower arms (C-AJJ3360) was bent. These are the arms with the standard bushing ends, not the spherical ends. It is bent right at the end where the treaded portion meets the bushing carrier. Of course they dont sell these separate anymore (the host actually head one fro sale on the site, which I bought and then was told they no longer carry these). Was hoping that someone maybe has this portion collecting dust as they have converted to spherical joints...maybe? 

Please let me know!