[T3] 2020 Invasion - POSTPONED

[Jeff C]

>
> Out of curiosity, does anyone here know anyone who has actually had,
> COVID-19, either mild or serious? No one we know personally has
> caught it, but all of our friends are staying safely at home. How
> many of you are working from home? Any of you still working, with
> distancing, without distancing?
>

I picked up a new job stating mid-February with the promise of being able
to work from home some of the time. I had already gotten things set up and
tested right about the time that California was issuing guidelines for
distancing, but not the shelter-in-place yet. I got lucky and everything
was already in place, while for some co-workers, it took them a couple of
weeks to get all of the stuff set up, the infrastructure bolstered and
stabilized.

Since the site I work at houses 24 hour operations for the state of
California, severe precautions have been taken on-site to prevent CV19 from
spreading there. Doubling of security staff, a cleaning crew
decontaminating high use areas and surfaces about every 3 hours or less,
and some entrances closed. They are taking this very seriously as we are
part of the infrastructure for the water systems throughout the state.

I live an hour from the worksite, so that has freed up 2 hours a day for
other activities, like the squareback.

Gearing up for the invasion primarily meant tuning up the engine with the
proper carbs for the first time since I bought it in 1978 and dealing with
the usual electrical gremlins. Thankfully removing every connector and
using DeoxitD5 on every connection plus a bunch of diagnosis has solved
most of those (just brake lights now). That plus purchasing a replacement
for the 9-connector turn signal-flasher relay has got those under control.

As the rubber bits are original but hard, broken, and chipped, water had
gotten in over the years and rusted the pan under the seats, but not on the
cargo area. The water warped all of the interior panels, but the vinyl is
still good. I've made replacement panel boards and gearing up to re-glue
the vinyl to the new boards.

I've purchase replacement rubber for all of the doors, hatches, and
windows. The right door latch was not working, so to get to that, the
scrapers and such were in the way, so purchased parts to redo the doors as
well. The latch just needed cleaning and lubrication.

The floorboard are rusty, but only near the battery has it gone through the
metal, so will fab and weld up that area. Going out to day to visit the
hardware store to see what I can purchase there to paint the seat bases,
sheet metal, and other items for working on the squareback.

The seats have been torn and sad for a very long time, so ordered samples
of material to get my '68 seat covers to match the original "white" rear
seat which is in good shape. Only one seat bottom is in decent shape.
Anyone want it, it is brown?

With little driving being done, my spouses vehicle is now on the driveway
covered up, so I have free use of the garage for working on the T3 stuff.
Space, what a luxury!

Yes, shipping has been slower than usual, but now with the Invasion
postponed, I have more time to work on the squareback. The current goal is
to prevent any more water intrusion to avoid more rust damage.

But, I'll be soooo close to having it all stripped down that going as far
as fixing the body dings and other bodywork is really tempting, but I am
not good at body work and inexperienced at large painting jobs. Plus the
lack of the tools to paint. I may settle for just treating the rust spots
and spot painting. I might just check into how much it would cost though.

Jeff the verbal rambler - '67 squareback
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