I dropped off the body to Canon's Irvine, Calif service center. They told me $206.00, and they'll "throw in" a free cleaning too. Ok, so I could just replace the camera with a used one in excellent shape via eBay, but being human, irrational at times, and I dare say sentimental, I opt'd to have the camera repaired. I traveled with that body all over the world, so how could I let it down?!? ;-)
Still, the lesson here is that I really do need to be more careful, and especially when using tools no longer in production as there will come a day when even Canon will not be able to fix it, for lack of parts.
Color me irrational again, but I recently added a 2nd and 3rd EOS-3 film bodies to my stable, just in case one of them goes out beyond repair, or gets stolen, lost. And besides, being a prime lens only shooter, I love going on shoots with at least two bodies, mounting two different primes and/or two different ISO films.
Thanks everyone for your contributions!
Oh, and someone asked if the curtain blades were creased...yes they were. Badly...I don't want to talk about it anymore....da pain, da pain!