Gray Man, Inc.

Well, I've been crazy busy with work over the last month. Got winter tires on the new Forester wheels with a couple days to spare.
We've had about 2 straight weeks of heavy fog, then a light dusting of snow with a dash of freezing rain.

While I've been on the road, my dad has been working an hour or two every day on the Dorsett. It's all stripped down now and he pulled what was left of the stringers before pressure washing the inside of the hull.

I bought 4 sheets of 3/4" marine plywood and I'm hoping to give him a hand measuring and cutting all the floor pieces over the next couple weekends. 3 gallons of resin get delivered on Thursday.

The scabby Dodge got a new head unit and speakers. There's actually 12v wires (who knew?) that run to the lower speakers in the doors and I inadvertently put power where it didn't belong, causing all 6 channels to drop out. I must have just stunned it, because after I remedied the situation, all was well. Nothing fancy, just a Sony and some JL Audio separates.

I also tore the front-end apart. Then I found out that it needed upper ball joints too. So I ordered more parts. Everything is here now, I just need a couple hours to put it all back together.

Supervenza just keeps paying me. Its got a couple minor things to address, but nothing that will affect reliability. Even though I didn't really start driving it until sometime in February, and then being down for the transmission work through July, I'll still put over 40,000 miles on it this year.

Glad I don't need to I replace it.

The replacements came from a local spring shop and are supposed to be spec'd to original. The springs that were in it have either been cut or are sagged out from 250,000 miles of use...or both. I'm just hoping to level the ride a bit. The lower ball joints had just a bit of play and the RF shock was wasted. Once I got it apart I found the upper ball joint on the right was very stiff and rough.

Me. I do. A lot.

I got it mostly back together Saturday. New springs, isolators, bumpstops, 3 of the 4 ball joints, and front shocks. I also repacked the wheel bearings because the left side had black (graphite?) grease with the consistency of clay, and the right side had clean, fresh grease, but very little of it.
Along the way I found a loose shock bolt and the left side upper ball joint was welded in. Ironically, it was the only ballp joint that was in good condition.

Anyway, it's back together and drivable now. I ran out of time to install the new rear shocks. The end result raised the front a full 3.5" and it rides sooo much better.

I ran it over to my parents' house and checked progress on the Dorsett. My dad pressure washed and dried out the inside of the hull. He also stripped the old rubrail off. He has the replacement stringers and braces rough-cut and he's going to continue pre-cutting floor pieces. The plan is for the two of us to fo some fiberglass work next week.