Holley's Custom Shop Carb Restoration - Re-Gassed

Parts are separated into groups: steel for cadmium chrome plating, zinc for dichromate, steel for black oxide, and non-ferrous for vibratory polishing and/or cleaning. Damaged parts are replaced, but not discarded (saved for reference). Small parts are wired together to prevent loss during the plating process. House dislikes fishing tiny parts from the tanks.

All but the most delicate parts-throttle body, float bowl, air horn/float cover-are carefully media blasted...

...prior to plating or vibratory polishing.

A few dunks in these cleaning tanks was all it took to get the parts-like our main carb body-bright and shiny.

The dunking continued until the end result was a perfect shade of yellow ...

... zinc dichromate yellow plated, that is, just like the originals.

The steel parts are processed with an automated yellow zinc cadmium chrome plating process.

Our carb's major bits are clean, plated, and ready for re-assembly. Note the cast throttle body/baseplate that's been given the black oxide treatment-when it was new, some or most of the early B/BC carbs featured "raw" castings, but this not only looks better, it holds up to the elements better.

After cleaning and plating, the carburetor jigsaw puzzle is ready for assembly.

New brass screws were used for the choke butterfly and retained with "blue" Loctite.

A host of new parts are used in reassembly, such as accelerator pump hardware, needle and seat assemblies, and gaskets

(note the use of "two" gaskets-with the age and condition of the early bodies, it's simply added insurance). Holley keeps an extensive stock on hand for the most common carburetors.

One of the "reused" components was the float assembly, which was tested accordingly before being reinstalled and, more importantly, adjusted (level-wise), in the float cover.

And with that, the aforementioned float housing is assembled. But before being reunited with the main body, the remainder of the internals must be tended to.

Next is the float bowl, which also receives all new internal components, including the discharge pump mechanism.

Once the guide is inserted into the discharge passage, House stakes it in place.

Holley uses the newer-style accelerator pumps with plungers that are impervious to modern fuels. The pump assembly also features a new spring, while the pump rod is a reconditioned original.

Finally, the two halves of our Rochester B-series are carefully (so as not to damage the fragile float assembly, among other things) reunited with one another.

The B designation refers to the "manual" choke provision on the Rochester single-barrels (House is installing the restored-original cable bracket); Holley is fully equipped to handle the Auto-Choke BC models as well.

One last step before calling the reassembly done-initially setting the carburetor's idle adjuster, as well as the throttle return.

House looks much more enthusiastic than he did from the start, and our Rochesters look better than ever! However, their session at the Custom Shop isn't over quite yet.

What separates the men from the boys-or at least the shade tree re-builders from the professionals-is Holley's flow stand. Each carburetor is thoroughly tested for proper air/fuel ratio from idle to full-throttle. Related functions, such as spark advance, are also checked. All settings are recorded on a work order and shipped to the customer with their carburetor.

And that's all she wrote, folks-another set of vintage carbs resurrected courtesy of Holley's Custom Shop.