Heaps of reading later, still unsure this would be a practical solution...

Bought the Mevotech TTX ball joints and finally have them in. Upper and lowers are torqued to spec but there is still play in the top joints on both sides. Not a crazy amount, but enough for me to not go further without a solution. My idea, can I put a washer (stainless?) above the castle nut on the upper to pull it down? Feel like it could come down more but if I over do it I don't want to kill the bore on the axle. These cost me a fortune to get to NZ so it needs to be done right.

In case anyone is wondering... I went with the TTX joints because the C's were already knurled (I don't want to talk about it), in general they were my best option after extensive reading, well packaged and they look awesome

Thank you!

 

And some photos just cause