Andrew Dawson
Contributor
Greetings:
Background: My neighbor is the original owner of a DUI Norseman drysuit. He recently gave it to me for free. It does not fit me but would fit my brother in law to be [getting married in July to my wife's sister]. I wanted to fix this suit up to gift it to him as a wedding gift.
The suit is in decent shape. The bad: the wrist seals are absolutely gone. The neck seal is ok, the zippers appear to be ok. The exhaust valve I disassembled and it was like new [Apeks high profile] and I treated the diaphragm with Seal Saver. The inlet exhaust valve appeared to work well, I took it apart as much as I could without taking it off the suit and treated the the o-ring on it that I could get to, dripping a bit of Seal Saver down into its middle and cycling the button. I also treated the neck seal and zippers to Seal Saver [yes, silicone on the suit is a no-no to DUI, but I have never had any issues ant it works like magic on the rubber] and put zipper wax on the zipper. The zippers are med-high mileage but work ok.
The suit has integrated boots with about 1/2 the tread left. The suit itself is labled 4/2 trilam.
I shipped the suit off to DUI and they called me yesterday about it. Here is the recommended repair order:
"We have evaluated the Norseman suit but were unable to test the suit due to the condition of the seals. Once the repairs are ok'd and completed we will send to test.
This suit is over 20 years old and although the material looks in good condition it needs quite a few repairs.
Here is a breakdown of requested and recommended repairs:
Replace Waterproof Zipper $384
Replace Relief Zipper $281
Replace Neck Seal latex $117
Replace Wrist Seals Latex $95
Replace Suspender Bases no charge courtesy
Test & Evaluation $125
Total $1002 not including freight
We do not test valves so there is no way of knowing if they will work properly. The only thing we can do is replace them (cost $214)
Please let us know if you would like to move forward with the above repairs, suit is on hold until we hear from you. If you decide to move forward we will need a charge card to attach to the order. Please fill out attached form and return by email or you can give us a call with the number. Repairs are currently taking 6 weeks from the time they are ok'd."
***The wedding is about 7 weeks away***
I asked if they would just fix the wrist seals, test it, and send it back. They said:
"Yes we can try fixing the wrist seals and test it. The relief zipper is worn down to the teeth so it will need to be replaced shortly even if it is not leaking. The main waterproof zipper is original to the suit so the sealing surface may have dry rot. Just a heads up."
IT is about $200 plus shipping but no guarantees if it will pass the leak test.
My options:
1. Roll the dice on the wrist seal fix, if it passes...gift it to my brother in law.
2. Roll the dice on the wrist seals, if it passes, sell it for say $500 and give the money to my brother in law.
3. Roll the dice on the wrist seals, if it fails, gift suit anyway.
4. Roll the dice on the wrist seals, if it fails, try to sell it to break even.
5. Leave suit at DUI and they will cut it up.
What would you do?
Thank you for the opinions
Background: My neighbor is the original owner of a DUI Norseman drysuit. He recently gave it to me for free. It does not fit me but would fit my brother in law to be [getting married in July to my wife's sister]. I wanted to fix this suit up to gift it to him as a wedding gift.
The suit is in decent shape. The bad: the wrist seals are absolutely gone. The neck seal is ok, the zippers appear to be ok. The exhaust valve I disassembled and it was like new [Apeks high profile] and I treated the diaphragm with Seal Saver. The inlet exhaust valve appeared to work well, I took it apart as much as I could without taking it off the suit and treated the the o-ring on it that I could get to, dripping a bit of Seal Saver down into its middle and cycling the button. I also treated the neck seal and zippers to Seal Saver [yes, silicone on the suit is a no-no to DUI, but I have never had any issues ant it works like magic on the rubber] and put zipper wax on the zipper. The zippers are med-high mileage but work ok.
The suit has integrated boots with about 1/2 the tread left. The suit itself is labled 4/2 trilam.
I shipped the suit off to DUI and they called me yesterday about it. Here is the recommended repair order:
"We have evaluated the Norseman suit but were unable to test the suit due to the condition of the seals. Once the repairs are ok'd and completed we will send to test.
This suit is over 20 years old and although the material looks in good condition it needs quite a few repairs.
Here is a breakdown of requested and recommended repairs:
Replace Waterproof Zipper $384
Replace Relief Zipper $281
Replace Neck Seal latex $117
Replace Wrist Seals Latex $95
Replace Suspender Bases no charge courtesy
Test & Evaluation $125
Total $1002 not including freight
We do not test valves so there is no way of knowing if they will work properly. The only thing we can do is replace them (cost $214)
Please let us know if you would like to move forward with the above repairs, suit is on hold until we hear from you. If you decide to move forward we will need a charge card to attach to the order. Please fill out attached form and return by email or you can give us a call with the number. Repairs are currently taking 6 weeks from the time they are ok'd."
***The wedding is about 7 weeks away***
I asked if they would just fix the wrist seals, test it, and send it back. They said:
"Yes we can try fixing the wrist seals and test it. The relief zipper is worn down to the teeth so it will need to be replaced shortly even if it is not leaking. The main waterproof zipper is original to the suit so the sealing surface may have dry rot. Just a heads up."
IT is about $200 plus shipping but no guarantees if it will pass the leak test.
My options:
1. Roll the dice on the wrist seal fix, if it passes...gift it to my brother in law.
2. Roll the dice on the wrist seals, if it passes, sell it for say $500 and give the money to my brother in law.
3. Roll the dice on the wrist seals, if it fails, gift suit anyway.
4. Roll the dice on the wrist seals, if it fails, try to sell it to break even.
5. Leave suit at DUI and they will cut it up.
What would you do?
Thank you for the opinions 
