As you've seen the car was cosmetically rough. Mechanically, things were not much better. The original 4spd gearbox was pretty rough. The engine itself was tired and leaked oil, although it ran cool and never failed to start. The differential must have been a replacement as it was a 3:64 ratio, and the original diff probably should have been a 3:45 (I believe the 3:64s were for automatics). On the freeway the engine was turning way too fast at the speeds necessary to keep up with modern traffic. A compression check revealed that the engine was indeed pretty tired with values in the 100 to 130 PSI range.
Although some suspension work had been done by the previous owner, some of the ball joints in the tie-rod ends were completely shot. The brakes were very poor and the discs themselves severely under the wear limit.
In late November of 1999 I drove her down in to town and parked her. Despite its fairly worn condition, people still stopped and stared at the car. It made me wonder what kind of reaction it might get if it were completely restored. I know the reaction I had when I'd seen pristine examples at the Concorso Italiano earlier that August. Driving home in the late autumn sunlight, with the 6 cylinder melody echoing off the center barrier on Highway 17 I had no idea that it would be 2 and a half years before I'd hear that song again.