I’ve got the Carburetor finished, and it’s running great!  As it turns out, the inlet valves were almost completely gummed up, which would probably be why the car was stalling out so badly, and the gaskets were pretty much falling apart. (10 years of storage will do that!)

I got an electric choke to replace the original, but I haven’t actually installed it because the vacumn pump seems to be working perfectly after the rebuild (My original suspicion was that the original choke was shot).  I’m hanging onto the electric choke as a backup, and I’ve finished replacing the convertible top and interior, so I’ll post that good stuff in a bit!

The previous owner had compensated by setting the choke more than 90 degrees too rich. The problem is that at 30 mph, the car wants to stall out. Certainly not what I would consider a safe driver.

There is also a significant amount of carbon of the choke valve and a ton of rust on the spring coil. Not only that, but the choke piston is completely missing! The vacumn works just fine, but without the choke piston, that doesn’t matter too much!

I decided to completely disassemble the carburetor, clean the engine paint overspray, replace the gaskets, and dip every nut and bolt. The goal is to restore the carburetor to “new” condition. I scoured a mustang junkyard for a replacement piston, but in the end I’ve decided to replace the choke with an electric, rather than manual, choke. This should provide greater reliability, and although not “original”, it will be unseen beneath the air intake, so I’d be very surprised if anyone noticed.

I’ll post photos once I get the carburetor finished, in the meantime I’m planning on stripping and repainting the air intake and valve covers back to a high quality gold finish.