Carburetor redying

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donsrods

Well-known member
Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
10,476
Location
fort myers florida
I am about to the stage where I need to start working on the 3 Rochester 2 barrel carbs I am going to put on my 394 Olds engine. I have 2 choices:

1) Box them up and send them to All American Carburetors and have them restored. They charge about $225 per carb, but they come back looking like brand new, even the correct color. My Son had his done and they looked outstanding and worked perfectly.

or....

2) Rebuild and redye them myself. I already have 3 NAPA rebuild kits I bought a while back and I also have 2 of the kits Speedway sells to turn the two end carbs into dumpers with no idle screws. Comes with new bases and all the parts to do it.

I am leaning toward door number two mainly for economic reasons. I have rebuilt a lot of carbs over the years and a two barrel is easy, but the part I am not sure about is dying the carbs so they look nice.

It looks like the procedure is to first soda blast the carbs, then soak them in a metal prep to clean them, and then finally put them in a solution of alodine to give them that golden finish that new carbs have. I can get the chemicals from Aviation Spruce, and am wondering if anyone on here has ever done this and how it turned out.

Don
 
Old Iron, thanks for posting that video, I hadn't seen that one and it is very informative. It gave me some part numbers from Dupont too and I am going to call my local Dupont dealer today to see if they carry them.

Don
 
i want to say either gearz or one of the old power blocks did a 3x2 carb rebuild that showed the speedway kits being used and they used dup-a-color (spelling) to restore the look of them.
 
i want to say either gearz or one of the old power blocks did a 3x2 carb rebuild that showed the speedway kits being used and they used dup-a-color (spelling) to restore the look of them.

I've looked at the Eastwood carb renew kits but they look like paint to me instead of the original dyed look. Not sure about the Duplicolor though.

I called local Dupont guy, they only carry it in gallons. Gallon of etch is $ 69.47 and gallon of alodine is same price, and they carry it in stock. Trouble is, that quantity would last me the rest of my life.

Sending them off to have them done is looking better all the time.


Don
 
The Eastwood stuff is just paint and it's junk. Not a good color to boot.
I have an idea Duplicolor is paint too.
 
$225 X 3 = $675, (plus shipping?) or

2 X $69.47 = $138.94

I think I'd do it myself and save the $536.06, even if I did end up with 1.9 gallons of chemicals that I may never use. You might even be able to sell the unused portion at half price and only be out $70. :)

Also, the total for quart bottles with shipping, from Aircraft Spruce is only $63.
Personally, I'd save the $600.
 
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My Son made the same comment about Aircraft Spruce. I think I will order the stuff this week and just do them myself. I just got home from work and think I will head over to the shop and tear into the carbs and just get started.

Thanks for the kick in the butt. :D

Don
 
Caswell, yellow chromate dye, will give it the proper coloring.
Must be super clean, follow the instructions to a "T" including
temperature of all fluids. I blast then polish all of the metal
parts. I blast and dye the base as well (black oxide)
Eastwood stuff is paint.....




weld on........[;)
 
That Caswell stuff looks good, I checked out their site this morning when I saw your post. However, I already ordered the etch and alodine from Aircraft Spruce yesterday, so I guess I will have to go with that now. But thanks anyway.

Last night I went through the 6 Rochester 2 G carbs I have to pick out the 3 best ones to rebuild. GM used these carbs from the 60's on into the late 70's or 80's, so there are a lot of different versions.

One of the 6 was too new to use, it had a lot more ports and stuff that I didn't need, so I set that one aside for parts. Of the remaining 5 carbs I selected 3 that were the best and chose one to be my center carb. The arm was not wobbly and it looked pretty good but greasy. This is the one I picked, it had a funky little bracket welded on the arm but we ground that off so it is now back to stock.



It is very clean inside so a little time in the sandblaster then coloring it should make it look a lot better. This is what it looked like when I opened it up:







The other two will be getting new Speedway bases that do not have the idle adjustment screws. I am also going to remove the chokes from those two. One of the two I selected for my end carbs has a rebuilt sticker on it, so it should be pretty clean inside when I open it up too.

I'm not going to go nuts on trying to make these carbs look perfect and like brand new, I want to get on with this project and I have so little time any more that I just need to get it done. Just want to make them look a little better and work well.

Don
 
Today I ordered some one inch high phenolic spacers to go under each carb from Summit. The arm on the center carb is too close to the intake manifold so it doesn't go through it's full travel without hitting the manifold. Those should raise the carbs up enough to clear. I didn't really need them yet, but might as well get them out of the way.

I also see that Vintage Speed sells lots of the little odds and ends for these Rochester 2 G carbs, like screws, etc. If I come up short from the 3 kits I bought I might have to get some things from them.

Tonight I think I'll finish dismantling the first carb and then sandblast it. I should have the alodine and metal etch in a few days, and can get it dipped then. I'm anxious to dip them to see how the process works and how they end up looking. Like I mentioned, not looking for perfection, just fresher looking.

Don
 
You mean beadblast, not sandblast Don....right!!!! The beads will come out of the passages when you clean the carb in hot water, the sand will stay in there.
Ask me how I know....from doing carbs for over 45 years.......If the end cabs are as clean as your middle carb, I would just soda blast them and then dye them.


weld on.........[;)
 
Here is a 2 x 2 Holley 94 setup that was dyed with the Caswell stuff.



weld on..........[;)
 

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I've gotten the first carb (the center carb) done and am now doing one of the end cabs. I kinda screwed up when I ordered the Alodine and bought the clear instead of the one that turns it gold. :eek: But, after seeing it on there I can live with it, the carb came out sort of silverish.

I also downloaded the instructions for the Speedway tripower kit off of their website and they are ok but vague in some areas. Luckily, the 2 G carbs are pretty straight forward, so I am able to figure it all out.

I will post some pictures tonight, I forgot my camera yesterday.

Don
 
Today I wrapped up the last two carbs, so now my tripower setup is pretty much done. It's a good thing I had 6 carburetors to start with because the 3 I ended up using were missing lots of little pieces, like linkage and some other parts. I was able to strip down the other 3 and get enough parts to finish the job.

I'm pretty happy with the way they came out and , of course, I couldn't wait to get them put on the intake manifold to see how they would look. :D





And I had to put the air cleaners on to get the full effect.





I'm glad you guys talked me into rebuilding them myself, rather than sending them off. They aren't as "new" looking as the ones professionally done, but this is going to be a driver, not a show car, so the way they turned out is fine with me.

I also saved a lot of money. Instead of $225 per carb I have about $200 in everything, including the Alondine and etch. All in all, it wasn't a hard job. I downloaded the tripower directions off of Speedway's site, which helped a lot.

Don
 
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Thanks. I'm pretty happy with them, but mainly happy I am done with doing them. Don't mind rebuilding one carb, but 3 was a little harder. But the 3rd carb I was getting pretty good at it though.:D

Don
 

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