Long story short, the mechanic at the body shop told me the entire rear end is rust and there's not even enough metal to weld the trailing arms back up (the other one was just barely attached). Basically to repair it, the entire rear of the vehicle would have to be fabricated, costing "thousands of dollars".
Now what?
The guy who sold it to me was willing to refund me $200, but that's just enough to cover the tow truck charges.
What should I do? Should I look for another Tercel wagon with a decent body and no engine and try to swap the good parts from the rusted out car? Are the engines and trannys compatible through all the model years, or do I need to find an '83-'84 body? Should I just try to rig something up that I can attach the trailing arms back to? Maybe just a thick piece of metal in the trunk that I could attach to several areas of the body and then drill through and attach the trailing arms? I don't know what that would do for the stability of the frame.
I was so excited to have this car, and it was fun to drive for the one hour I had to drive it, and now I'm out $700 with a useless car parked in my driveway...
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
any ideas?...