I removed the fork gaiter this morning after getting the fork with leprosy off last night.
Turns out there's a HUGE ding (looks like a rock got it real good), as well as deep pitting in the suspension travel area. I have no idea how that happened, because it has the original gaiters on it. Either way, I'm going to need a new fork tube. Seems I can get a set of forks for like $50 with free shipping on ebay. Might as well do that, as most of them look better than even my cleaner fork.