Knowing that the car had mostly been stationary for a few years, I knew that starting to drive it more regularly would highlight any immediately pressing issues. First things first was to get it insured and to address the non-working brake lights which required new bulbs and a new brake light switch.  Also, the vinyl headliner, while structurally tight and sound was pretty moldy from sitting around.    I was able to take upholstery cleaner, and the scrubbing wand of a carpet cleaner vacuum and return it nice white white headliner.  

I had just licensed and insured the car right before the October PNW meet up in Snohomish, and was looking forward to turn up and meet the local crew.  My wife and I showed up at the location, didn't see anybody else, and then realized it had been rescheduled due to weather.  Oh well.  Although, we were only sitting there for a minute, and realized the car was leaking a surprising amount of gas from a bent aluminum tube low on the frame by the clutch master cylinder which had a rotted rubber stopper over the top of it.  A quick stop at a parts store and I had a replacement, but no idea where or why that little pipe has gas in it. Return line?  Former high pressure line from before the engine swap?  Still not 100% sure.  

After that was changing all the fluids and filters (Oil, Coolant, Transmission, Diff).  It made a funny clunking sound coming from the rear end in the 1-2 shift, which I diagnosed while changing the diff fluid.  It ended up that all six hex bolts on the left drive shaft were basically loose at wheel end (less than finger tight) and I could rotate the drive shaft a few degrees by hand.    I'm glad I found that before it became some sort of catastrophic issue later...   

It also had a pretty nasty mis-fire, especially when it was cold but it happened under medium load and a roughly similar RPM every time.  Inspecting the cap and rotor showed pretty significant corrosion.  I sanded and scraped it off, which helped a little, but I decided to just replace the cap, rotor, plug wires, plus and coil, just to have a fresh setup.

After what was essentially just basic maintenance it seems to be driving much better.  It starts easily even when its cold as well as shifts and runs much smoother now.  

Next up is to update the seats and seatbelts for safety.