I've been getting the body ready to be mounted on the Celeste. Since the drivetrain and suspension are off I thought this would be a good time to check the body out after 55 years of use. I took a peak in the torsion tubes. Perfect! I've taken the turn signals and headlights off and it looks like the day the car was built. I'm lucky to have such a rust free car. I've digital probed everywhere I can think of. I've replaced the engine sound pad. Metal under the pad? Perfect. I even had a 1 by 1 hole cut inboard of the front passenger side suspension pickup point and ran the probe over to the driiver side battery tray (SWB). No rust. Then POR15, then wax and welded up the hole. Over half of the paint is orginial. The only place I haven't seen is under the glass. When this work is done it will be nice to know the car is strait or will be strait. To be honest the car seems to have been in a small shunt at some point in it's life. I'm guessing it was hit at the left front. It was repaired well probably sometime early in it's life. It has a 68 driver front fender but it's a last 20 67 Karman car so the 68 fender could have been installed at the factory. Another reason to put it on a Celeste. Finding a longhood that's never been in some kind of shunt is a very rare car indeed.
The new engine build for Doug's E targa will have a bit more go when done. It's based on an aluminum SC case with new Mahle 10.2 to 1 P&C's and will be a 3.2. It will be single plug so compression might end up maybe 9.5 to 1 ish. It will run full S pec MFI and have a nice new green engine shroud with powder coated oil cooler air channel. Head work for the MFI injectors, intake and exhaust ports along with valve guides is currently in the process. Rebuilt fuel pump. The throttle bodies are off to be restored. I'm thinking it will be kinda like a early to mid 70's 3.0RS (3.2) engine. The green shroud will make it look like a 69 2.0E MFI with an extra 1.2 liters and S spec. Granted some parts will be plastic not early mag but close enough. Power wise it should be a bit of a sleeper. A 2.0E has about 140hp if I recall. I'm hoping this one will be 215 plus. As it will have good torque the 901 will have a C 1st, then GA, O, V, ZD. A ZD at 80 is a nice cruise at 3200 rpm's behind a 3.2 that will hardly raise a sweat. Doug will have to learn to be very nice to 1st. A C 1st gets you accross the widest intersections with rpm's to spare.
If all goes well I'm hoping both of these cars will be ready by late spring. Then it's on to the 69 2.7 POLO.
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