I remember how it all began ... - Toyota Corolla, 1.2 L, 1974

I was familiar with the car long before the purchase - the client came to our station (he was a friend of our engineer, Alexander Boyko). Ride, appreciated "in business". Then everyone walked around and clinked their tongues: "Well, you must! So old, and how she runs!" Especially after looking under the hood. Confused only by the backlash of the crosspieces, loudly declaring itself with a kind of "trumpet sound". Well, it is necessary to treat, you will not travel with such a long time. And the hood itself was 10-15 centimeters from the leading edge very rusty ... After a while, the car was again with us, this time with suspicion of a cylinder head gasket. We measured the compression: 13 -13 -15 -13. Everything is clear, a cylinder with water. While they were rolling up the tricky hood strut on the lift

(it was in the middle, the stand ran along the slot and was spring-loaded to fix it in the upper position, photo from here retrorides.proboards.com/...hread=35717&page=8#765909 ) could not resist and one of the mechanics pulling the car in front almost lost fingers at the moment of rolling through the chain box of the lifting mechanism ... (rolled with the hood open, the partner of the "victim" pushed from behind). A machine with character, I thought then.
Some time passed, the car is with us again. Now the "engineering thought" decided to put caprolon bushings on the crosspieces instead of needle bearings. Like, he is strong, everything will be a "bundle". In fact, the owner had money, but he just didn’t want to invest it in the "underpopular version". We did it, it didn't even knock for a while.
In the fall, I saw the car again, but already at the top, near the bodywork, with a "racked" face. Either the owner put someone behind the wheel, or he himself was "under the shafe", did not appreciate the agility and flew into the curb (or into the post, I don’t remember). The steering rod is right in half, the lever is bent, the disc and the front cross member too. This predetermined the further fate. After discussing the details (the main of which was the lack of documents for the car next to the owner), we agreed on a symbolic amount of $ 150 (starting from $ 100) and shook hands. I urgently made a power of attorney, carved a bushing for a broken rod and drove the car into the garage under a terrible squeak of converged wheels and sprinkling the road with water flowing from the damaged radiator and pump.
I had to disassemble the car and prepare it for the bodywork.

Mileage: 334,715 km