In order to fulfill the promise from the last post I would like to present an account of the meeting with Mr. Slawek, who at a certain point of his life was a proud owner of two Corollas and one of them was KE30! I got Mr. Slawek’s mobile number from Piotr, the previous owner of the car. I do not remember exactly now who was contacted by who, but I’d rather bet on Mr. Slawek contacting Piotr with the offer of spare parts. I had a telephone conversation with Mr. Slawek in January and he promised to search for the parts and contact me again to arrange a meeting. When there was a chance for a free weekend at the end of February I didn’t hesitate too much, but I called Mr. Slawek immediately and proposed a meeting, which Mr. Slawek was very pleased to agree to. Due to the fact that he lives a little bit farther than Lublin together with Milena we wanted to use an opportunity to visit some interesting places in or near Lublin. One thing we were sure of - we wanted to go to Majdanek. Unfortunately, the weather was not very good at that day, very, very windy, so we abandoned our plans. Eventually, it turned out that we will have to pay one more visit to Mr. Slawek, so we weren’t very disappointed.
Arriving at the place was not much of a trouble, because Mr. Slawek described the route very well and GPS also did a pretty good job. However, I must admit that the last few hundred meters were tricky even for GPS so we had to ask representatives of local community for help. We helped them in return, gaining a few points of karma, so it was a win-win :-). We were warmly greeted by Mr. Slawek and his wife Marzena. Milena was invited to the kitchen by the lady of the house for a chit-chat, while I was dragged to the garage, where Mr. Slawek gathered substantial number of spare parts. I learned many interesting stories of Mr. Slawek’s two Corollas and even saw a few photos with one of them. The history or rather the end of history of one of them was really sad as it was set to other less glorious, yet still useful purposes – the bonnet served as door for cows in a shed, the driver’s seat was transferred to a tractor to serve a new master and the roof of the car was transformed into an outhouse roof. As a comment I will use Mr. Slawek quote - "in the countryside nothing goes to waste" :-).
After the freezing cold ousted us from the garage to the house we found a table full of refreshments, which was really nice of the hosts and more stories about family, work, nowadays and in the past, about the crisis in Lublin, relations with neighbors, and about a shrine which protects the house and provides it with adequate grace :-). There is no doubt that Mr. Slawek has an oratory gift, so we were not aware that so many hours passed since our arrival. Time flies - as it usually happens when spending time in good company.
Now it is the time to write a little bit about the main purpose of the visit. Mr. Slawek’s possessions are presented on the pictures below. Frankly speaking, my knowledge of the overall mechanical condition of the car and its individual components is quite negligible, thus it was hard for me to identify and divide those things into necessary and unnecessary group, and determine whether the items owned by Mr. Slawek will even fit into my model. For sure I have different tail lights, his grill is larger with cut-outs for 2 additional headlights, which I don’t have at all :-). When it comes to other things – we will see. The things that brought me the biggest joy were the original manual for KE30 Mr. Slawek had (in German and French unfortunately – another languages to learn...: P) and a door mirror (!!!), which is a very crucial part! I was equipped with the fuel pump, racing steering wheel for Corolla, if I felt like changing something, brake cable and light casings, but not all of them fit. Last, but not least, the original fuel cap, which I will describe one day in a separate post to present one of silent heroes of Toyota Corolla! :-).
Before departure we agreed with Mr. Slawek that we would contact him again in forthcoming weeks after he brings the other spare parts, which he still keeps on his garden plot located ca. 60 km from the place he lives. I'll call him probably today or tomorrow, to pass happy Easter wishes and schedule our next meeting. Talk to you soon!
PS. If you ever hear that someone has some spare parts for old Corolla or maybe you come across any please let me know! :-)
discs, clutch parts, parts of the steering column, etc
a silencer, a shaft, tail lights, dashboard's component, etc.
a water pump, a shock absorber, a distributor
front and rear windowscreen and a grill
closer look on the tail lights
THE OFFICIAL MANUAL!
my booty :-)
