On the landing gear: I wouldn't bother changing the gear struts.

A couple of weeks ago we had dense fog at the field. To test the thickness of the fog, I took off and did a couple of circuits fairly close in and upon landing, pancaked my Harmon.

Yep the stock gear bent a bit; if it had not bent, I'm sure there would have been some damage. As it was, I bent the gear back and flew several times that morning after the fog burned off.

When I was becoming used to landing the plane I bent the gear several times, but they bend right back and really offer some good shock absorbtion.