67 E-Type 2+2 – Coming Out of Mothballs

I am embarrassed to admit that my 1967 E-Type 2+2 hasn’t received much attention in the last few years. There are several reasons for that. The main issue is that my Porsche 928 is such a pleasant car to drive that it has become my go to car. My wife likes it better because it has decent air conditioning. I have also been spending a lot of time finishing up my Porsche 944R. The end result is that it has been almost 2 years since I last started the E-Type. I just started my “second retirement” this week and one of the first things I decided to do was to take the E-Type out of mothballs. And literally, the first thing I had to do was scrub/clean/treat all the interior leather surfaces, which had developed a fine fuzz of mold. It all cleaned up very easily, with no long term affects.

For the last two days, I have been concentrating on getting the car running. As you will see in the pictures, I was able to put my single post lift into play. It makes things much easier to access. The first thing I did was drain out the old gas. I then added fresh gas and used the fuel pump to flush a 1/2 gallon of so up through the system to a temporary drain line that I installed at the fuel filter. I then removed the 3 SU carburetors for inspection and cleaning. I had suspected problems but except for some gunk in the bottom of the chambers below the diaphragm for the needles, they actually looked pretty good. I did find one float that had some fuel in it. That float was replaced with another from my supply of spare parts. Then I reinstalled the carbs.

I drained the oil, replaced the filter, and added new oil. I removed the spark plugs and squirted a little oil in each cylinder. I cranked the engine a few revolutions with a wrench to loosen things up a little. I clean off the electrodes on the plugs and reinstalled them.

I was about ready to try to start the car. As I half suspected, the battery was pretty dead, even having been on a battery tender for all this time. I substituted a spare battery. I put the key in the on position and waited for the fuel pump to fill the float bowls. Just to help things along, I squirted starting fluid into the carbs. I was rewarded with an engine start, the first time in 2 years! Yay!!! Tomorrow it’s time for a drive 🙂