Well, I’m not sure if the timing on this was great, or horrible. I submitted my order for my finish kit in late January. I did this for a few reasons.
- I needed something to motivate me to progress faster. Nothing like a deadline to get you moving.
- I had the funds for the kit and figured I should order now in case prices went up (or I might spend it on something else)
- I thought I was far enough along that that this was when I “should” order the kit.
My crating date was the week of March 23rd and with all of the recent stay at home and social distancing orders, I was worried that this may have an impact on my kit. After talking to the wonderful staff at Vans, they told me they were taking things seriously, but doing their best to keep things moving. Sent in my final payment and figured things may be delayed a few weeks from VANS side, or possibly the shipper.
NOPE, Vans had their stuff together, and sent me the shipping information on 3/27. Shipment arrived in Maryland on 3/31 and was contacted to set up my delivery on 4/2. With the news getting worse each day regarding COVID-19, I was absolutely shocked that this was going to happen.
I then had a minor panic attack as I tried to figure out WHERE I was going to put the crate as things are getting tight in my garage. After a little bit of jenga, I figured out something that would work for a few days as I unpack the crate and inventory everything. I’ll have to start stuffing parts all over the house, but I’ll make it work.
Maybe the silver lining is that I will have enough to keep me busy on the airplane over the next few weeks / months. I think I have most of the supplies I need and crossing my fingers that PPE gear starts to flow again. Lots of front line people really need that gear now, but hopefully once they have what they need, we can begin to get it back in stock for those doing other projects. Currently I’m down to my last box of gloves and the filters currently in my respirator. I’m sure I’ll need more before I start the fiberglass work.
With the crate delivered, I had almost no room to move around, so it was time to quickly unpack and inventory the kit. Bulky items (doors and cowl) and other fiberglass parts were inventoried and moved to storage while all the other stuff was relocated to shelves. The Bag of hardware was checked and returned to the original bag for storage. Only two errors this time. No Spinner, and got an incorrect sub-bag of hardware. Reported back to the mothership and a the missing items are already on the way.