This Corona 4 portable came to the shop with a myriad of problems. Multiple type bars were bent, the ribbon feed on the right was not working and bent, paper would not feed and the back spacer was not working. Really, they could not even use the typewriter.
I removed the front decorative section that says Corona and discovered the type bar rest was not attached, many loose screws under the carriage, on the sides of the frame, and get this… hammer marks! I got things tightened up, replaced the paper feed rollers, then re-glued the platen to its core. Working on bent type bars is a bit tedious and slow work as you DO NOT want to break one. In the end, each type bar needed de-burring and adjusting.
The typewriter needed new rubber feet as the machine was sitting so low the keys would hit the workbench. For those of you watching, if I suggest new rubber feet for your typewriter, they NEED IT to function correctly. Too many times I have customers gag at the cost of new feet and say no only to have a typewriter that is still not working quite right. This is especially true for the early Corona 3 and 4’s as they already sit pretty low.
Once I got to the testing phase I was then faced with the reality of a loose carriage. Now I know why there were hammer marks and so many loose screws, they were trying to cure type faces that were not connecting quite right on the platen. I was only getting a good 1/2 of an impression. Usually this is taken care of by the on-foot adjustment for both upper and lower case. Well… that didn’t work! Who ever had fun with this Corona messed it up for good. There was no way to risk bending the carriage tabs that far without the very real risk of breaking each of them. Fortunately, there was enough play in the rear wheel guide that the typewriter now types with most characters fully engaged.