Hello all,
I sent my Ford / Holley "94" carburetor in to Rockauto's rebuild service; wondering if anyone else has used this service, another service or just rebuilt themselves?

The carb is off my 1952 Ford F3 and I tried to clean it out myself (took off top half where float is) but too many ports and jets must be clogged.

Anyway - I will let you know what it comes back looking like (in 6-13 days), but here is a pic of the carb just before I took it off my 239 CID flathead V8.

 

Hello MidwestWes! Glad to have you aboard.

As you might expect, there are folks who rebuild themselves and others who have a pro rebuild. I've gone both routes and have been pleased with the pro's work versus my own. Haven't used the RockAuto offering, the current favorite here is cowboyjohnsautoparts.com in Florida. He did some great work for me.

Have we seen pictures of your truck?

 

Hi Wes, welcome to FTE the best Ford truck forum on the World wide Web.

Rather than rebuilding the carb on my 54 again I bought a rebuilt carb from Cowboy John.

Let us know how your carb is when you get it on your truck. And show us pics of your truck.

 

Thanks for the replies - I will look at Cowboy John's site to see what else he can help me with!

These are pics from a little over a year ago as I was buying the truck. I have had it on the road once last fall, but couldn't work on it again until this week. I plan on leaving the patina (after cleaning up what's left of the paint). I have replaced brakes / lines and master cylinder, fuel pump and lines, front shocks, I have a new interior to install, have new bed runner strips and hardware to install cherry wood bed boards (making them myself), new wheels and tires, and recovered the seat.

Fun project so far, love this era vehicles.

By the way, my friends 80 year old dad suggested on the day I brought the truck to his farm, to drain oil, fill entire engine with diesel fuel and let sit overnight before trying to start. I sealed off the oil dipstick hole and did that. About 24 hours later, I drained the diesel fuel, pulled the old plugs and let everything air out. Added oil to the crankcase and cranked the engine without plugs for about a minute. Replaced that oil one more time, put in new plugs and after 15 years of sitting, we had the engine running shortly after off of a gas can. For what it's worth. And probably 200 mechanics that will say to never do that, lol. I'm not a mechanic so took the advice and seemed to work.

 

Thanks DW - Some pics in abe's post reply.

I'll check out cowboyjohn too. Carb rebuilds (mostly on small engines, frankly) never seemed to work out that well for me, so I figured I'd save the heartache and go straight to the pros, hehe.

Wes

 

Welcome. Nice looking truck, great patina.

I sent my carb to Charlie NY after attempting to rebuild it myself 3 times. He’s on the fordbarn forum. When it came back he’d missed a vacuum leak, but he stood behind his work. While it was on the way back to him I bought a repro from Chuck’s trucks. Now I have an extra carb and the truck is running very good.

 

Thanks Bob,
On the patina, I'm thinking of doing a wet sand to get as much Sheridan Blue to come out and then probably do an oil coat; at least that's what I'm thinking at the moment.
Wes

 

Sounds like a great plan. I would’ve done that to mine if it had all been one color, and anywhere near original. My truck had at least 3 different colors under the current color. I suspect different companies owned it over the years and painted it the company colors, the last being “Tires 40” which is stenciled on the glove box.

 

I have mentioned this in other threads, https://www.customrebuiltcarbs.com/ over the years Phil has done many carbs for myself and friends.

 

Here’s my prices for carb rebuild.

1. disassemble
2. blow out everything with aerosol carb cleaner
3. Dip in Chem-dip following the directions on the can. (if you skip this it isn’t going to work)
4. blow parts off with aerosol carb cleaner again.
5. reassemble and check throttle body clearances.

The big advantage most professional rebuilders have over a DIY job is they have ultrasonic cleaners that do a better job than Chem-dip. Still though do you think they had that in the 50s?

If you don’t have one already get yourself a reprinted Ford factory service manual.

 

Welcome to FTE! I look forward to seeing how Rockauto does for you. I probably need to have my carb rebuilt professionaly.

For cleaning off surface rust. I did the CLR and Scotchbrite pad method and it worked wonderfully.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...g-results.html

 

Thanks - The manual is the one with the red cover, right?

 

Awesome, thanks Joe, I will look into it.
Wes

 

I just used Cowboy John in May to rebuild a fuel pump,'55 F100 .Excellent job and good price and knowledgeable info over the phone on other things. I'm only an hour away from him. just google him, I also have his phone number .

 

Thanks, will do.
Wes