Technical My Crazy Dual Quad Carter AFB Restoration

looks really nice!

Yeah, most carbs are zinc alloys, but the AFB...the A stands for Aluminum. They're a lot lighter castings than zinc castings. And don't warp like zinc.

 

Thank you sir. I tried the Eagle One as well. It just wouldn't get rid of the black smutting. In hind sight I would have gone from the soap to the glass beads. Luckily I found enough pictures from the internet and from what plating was left to figure out which parts were Blue/Clear and which were Yellow Chromate.

 

Here is the Tank set-up with Zink anodes, I notched the lip of the bucket with a cut off wheel at 45 deg. angles so that I could change the position of the cathode bar. Some thought was given to the part features while wiring parts to get full coverage. I also bent the bottoms of the anodes at 45 deg. an 1-1/2 from the ends.

 

In body and paint work surface preparation is key. Plating is no different. Following the hot degrease the parts get rinsed in the distilled water tank and sprayed with distilled water. This provides a bit of a power rinse. Next, they go into a 5% Muriatic/water bath for 6-7 seconds then to the next rinse tank, sprayed again, and then into the plating solution. This process avoids cross contamination. Most parts were plated for 20 min. which provides about .001" to .0015" of Zink. Adding the right amount of Zink brightener is sort of a black art and is largely determined by the appearance of the previous run.

My first run was going to be Blue/Clear Chromate. After plating parts get rinsed again, spray rinsed, and then directly into the Blue solution for 30 seconds. They get rinsed again, dried with compressed air and hung up to cure. The first test piece was inspiring. It was prepared with slightly different surface preparation to help determine what was actually necessary.

 

Here are some results.

 

Wow!! very impressive!!, will you be able to use the screws as is, or will you need to do anything to the threads?
Thanks!!

 

Thanks rbrewer. Screws and their threads are plated/chromated and ready to go.

 

Awesome work. I can’t imagine that the carbs looked this nice new.

 

Thank you unforgiven. I would have liked to get a picture of one in new condition. That would have helped. I was going for as new but, had to make a few compromises. For example, the air door shaft was originally bare steel with plated blades and weights. With out more tooling and a source of the original rivets. it just was not practical so, I just plated the entire assembly. This should provide additional corrosion protection.

 

The yellow chromate was a little more challenging. After repeating the process used with the Blue, I immediately had issues with chromate adhesion. I doubled the strength of chromate solution both to try and improve the bond, but also to change the color to a slightly darker golden bronze.

In the end I discovered two things. I had to a incorporate an extra step after plating. This required a 10 sec. dip in a (10% by volume) Sulfuric bath (Battery acid) then a compressed air dry step prior to the yellow. The residual water left on the part was compromising the chromate bond. The Yellow parts were chromated for 45 sec. and immediately compressed air dried.
After 3-4 days hanging they cured and the problem was solved. I read other folks solved this using a nitric acid/water bath.

 

A comment on plating:

While Carter did use some nickel and chrome plating on a VERY few carburetors; most electoplating was different.

Carter was located across the street from Howard Crown Plating.

Carter had a "corrosion spec" for steel pieces; this specification included both white and yellow cadmium, and both white and yellow zinc. Carter did not use a di-chromate until the late 1970's and 1960's. Of course, the di-chromate is a better finish, so if not doing "numbers matching" then the di-chromate would be the way to go.

When the steel stampings were returned from the stamping shop, they were carted across the street to Howard Crown, and plated with whatever corrosion plating Crown was running that day. I have seen new old stock Carter carbs have have all four platings. So one can use any of the four and be correct.

Exceptions were that SOME of the shafts were blued; others were chromed.

From decades of observation, I would GUESS that in the 1950's and 1960's Howard Crown ran white zinc more than 60 percent of the time. In the 1940's and especially the 1930's that percentage approached 100. Exceptions would be the V-16 Caddy carbs which had chrome on the steel pieces.

And the Competition Series dataplates are readily available, but I have yet to find a source for the rivets. When restoring these carbs, I generally reused the rivets, or made new ones on the lathe.

Jon

 

Thanks carbking. You always provide excellent insight to history and are a highly valued carburetor resource to all.

I have to ask about the data plates. I have not found any for sale. I do however know of a source for those rivets. I'm pretty sure they are correct.

The primary throttle arms on the original competition series AFB's seem to all be bright nickel plated. Rather that go through another plating endeavor and associated costs, I decided to Yellow chromate the arms. I think (could be wrong) that's what a lot of the OEM AFB's had.

Thanks,
Tom

 

Due to the complex nature of the primary shaft and arm and being a pressed/welded assembly I decided to do them in Yellow chromate and not get involved in Nickel plating at this time. Though I originally wanted to gun blue the shafts I decided this would be too risky and besides a real hot bluing was not in the cards. There are black oxide kits available but are nothing like a real industrial black oxide system which, by the way, is extremely dangerous. From the parts I had it seemed the shafts were bare steel but I guess it's possible the were at one time black oxide or blued.

 

Those rivets look like one we use to attach machine serial number plates.
McMaster Carr.
I think they are called drive rivets.
All kinds of sizes/metals available.

 

I fabricated this cathode fixture to plate the primary arms. This allowed me to rotate the shaft assemblies six times every 5 minutes during the plating process while holding the assembly at a 45 deg. angle to the anodes. Some left over copper tube, a tee fitting, some solder, and an $8 SST shaft collar. The shaft itself was polished and masked with 3M 470 platers tape.

 

Yep. McMaster-Carr.

 

Here's the start of assembly. New SST Fillister head throttle valve screws installed w/Loctite 222.

 

I was lucky and found a pair of NOS Carter primary jets. Two were chewed up by someone with the wrong tool.

 

You guys are good!

I would have never thought to try McMaster-Carr.

Looks like part number 90081A074 should be close.

Cheap as they are, I will order these, and one plus and one minus size.

As far as the dataplates are concerned; I reproduced them with authority from Carter decades ago. Like all of our parts, they are available WITH the purchase of a carburetor rebuilding kit for the carburetor in question.

Jon

 

All adjustments performed to factory spec's. Tricky without damaging the new plating.

 

I have that same intake at the polisher. I think it's cool.

Guess I'll have t build another plain jane sbc that makes 500 hp to put it on.....so boring. Who would want that when you get something with 85 hp? My zero turn mower is 35 hp.

 

Well...…. Unfortunately I don't need kits any more. I would be interested in a pair of data plates for a fair price including the newly found rivets. I also have some good serviceable (for free) AFB parts including a set of manual choke parts if that sweetens the deal. PM me and maybe we could work a deal?

Tom

 

Tom - if you purchased the kits for these carbs from us within the last 365 days, then we do not require another kit.

As far as spare AFB parts, take 40 years off my age, and I would be interested.

Jon

 

Power pistons re-polished. A quick dip in the 50/50 Phosphoric and water makes the brass like new.

 

Here's the rest of the pictures. Never say never!

 

Jon, Unfortunately I did not buy the kits from you. Too bad I can't buy the tags separately. Yes, I understand the age deal. Just thought I would make an offer. Let me know if there's anything we can do.

Take care,
Tom

 

I'm saving this thread as I bought a bunch of 3300 and 3326 AFBs to build 2 good ones for my Pontiac Offy dual quad intake. Really love the home grown plating on your steel parts!

 

Thanks Rocky. I posted this thread to show what is possible with a little money, a lot of time, and a lot determination. It's been quite a process and I've learned so much more. Good luck with your AFB's!

 

Everythin

What you can't see is a 34 chev dash with a 36 ford speedo and a 49 merc 3speed electric overdrive column shift gearbox. Does it look like a catalogue check book car?

 

Holy moly, you're a madman.

Guess we all know who we're sending our gasoline toilets to for plating now