Before I ever laid eyes on her
Lets go back to May of 2009, and had turned 21 the month before. I worked for Monument Car Parts, a smaller auto parts chain in the SF East Bay. I owned a 1990 Honda Accord EX 5 speed (great car would buy another). My Accord had around 240,XXX miles on it. She was becoming a pit I was throwing money into. So started opening my options to finding a new car. A coworker who ran a register up front at the retail counter told me he'd sell his "POS old Corolla" for $600. A very close friend of mine also worked up front at the retail side of things told me to buy it. So I took a peek.
(This is the oldest pic I have of her that I could find from Aug 2009)
Love at first sight
I love square 80ies automobiles. Growing up my dad owned handful of late 70ies to late 80ies square like Chevys and Toyotas. So immediately I hashed out a plan with my coworker and the car was mine. I was third owner of a 1982 Corolla 3 speed automatic with 91,000 miles on the clock. I bid farewell to Henrietta the Honda shortly after. Some night within the first week of our union I made eye contact with a muscular mayor in his Corvette at a traffic light.
The Corolla had no muffler and was rather loud. Much like the scene from a movie, he shot a rev and I returned one, it was on. The light turned green and I was left in the dust. Staring at the ass end of the fiberglass sports car a light shined on the Corvette engraving. The "vette" part was eerily illuminated and so I named my girl Evet. I promised to her although she'll never be as sleek or as fast as a Corvette I'll always love her and treat her like one.
A wrap up to this Evet intro
This little 1900lb hunk of steel, iron, and aluminum has travelled 175,897.65 miles around California. 83,000 of them with me, each one a blessing. The automotive knowledge I've learned while owning her is priceless. A huge shout of gratitude to assembly plant at Toyota City, Japan and whoever worked the plant in Nov of 1981. They crafted a fine automobile and I'm proud to be her registered owner.
Coming up
I'm still digging through old pictures for early build pics. I will probably put up another blog in a few days roughly covering Evet 2009 to 2016. I started documenting the build much better in 2016 so hopefully I can cover that gap in one or two posts.
Not car related, but I'm planning on doing at least one post a week about a fringe/conspiracy topic. I listen to a lot of Grimerica, Richard Syrett, and John B. Wells. They cover a whole bunch of topics that consume my consciousness. Most of my coworkers look at me like I'm crazy when I talk chemtrails, vaccines, and the one world order. Sometimes I have the need for a healthy discussion on these things.
As always you can find me on IG : @rustyshackl4d
Happy New Years and God Bless.