Fire: combustion or burning, in which substances combine chemically with oxygen from the air and typically give out bright light, heat, and smoke. Otherwise known as, so that happened.
My friend Roy asked me to look into rebuilding his carburetors. They are very valuable, 46IDA Webers made in Italy. People ask crazy money for completely restored sets – like $12,000 or $14,000 crazy – on eBay. Roy paid less. But look what he got. The atomziers are melted like candle wax on top of the butterfly valve, the accelerator pump arm is squeeze played into nonfunctionality land and bolts are so rusted and crusted that they snap a towel in high school locker room.
I’ve love playing with carburetors in my shop. I’ve pulled apart and rebuilt dozens of Solexes, see pic below, in addition to playing with some triple barrel Zeniths and my own 40IDA Webers on my 911T. However these are not my bag baby. There is so much here that I am not set up for. Precision tools are needed to drill out the broken bolts, tap new threads, bore out the throats and bush new shafts. I’m worried I take it just a little too far and might screw up the airways and byways, throwing a gutter ball into any attempt to tune them after restoration.
My goal was to break them down, itemize what was needed and then act as project manager to get them rebuilt by professionals. Now my goal is to send them back in better shape then received but ready to sell to someone else. Good quality rebuilds cost about $3,000 plus parts and I don’t believe Roy is prepared to spend that even if they are worth $10,000 or more when they are done.
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