More on my grandma's General Electric:
Yes, the sheet metal-rattle, seemed to be a diagonal thump-thump visably seen during the spin, we were in the kitchen over it once when it banged and clunked during an unbalanced load....
The agitation made a "Maaaalllll" sound, and disappointing to learn a left-opening lid model which hers as was some K Mart knock-off while the many Genuine GE's that Inwould see, and later Hotpoints had their lids open to the rear...
Somehow I could briefly change the speed from Normal to Gentle, back to Normal despite at that time learning it was bad to do, without that one time even at the machine in its final almost-15-years doing any harm... (it got replaced by a WCI-built Frigidaire due to pump issues, it had a couple or so before, while otherwise being a great machine)
-- Dave