Good morning,
I'm a first time q-jet rebuilder. I bought Cliff's book and am about 2/3 of the way through it. My carb is a Carter Q-jet model 1705920. I plan on getting the "HP" rebuild kit from Cliff's website and rebuilding it with that, adding a 1" spacer from LMC. It's coming off of my 1979 Chevrolet C20 w/ a 350, and I'm pretty sure it's the original carb and hasn't been rebuilt in decades. It does have the aluminum mixture plugs cut out of it.
Anyhow, I'm trying to plan the entire process out ahead of time, and I have a question on protective coatings for my Q-jet body, air horn, and base plate. Would it be advisable to get them anodized for corrosion resistance? Is it OK to get the anodization inside the carb body and the air horn, or should those be masked off and only the outside anodized?
I'm a control systems engineer and I've been rebuilding carbs since I was a kid on Farmall tractors and lawnmowers and stuff, but never anything this complex. Want to do it right the first time. Thanks for the help.
Welcome to CHP!
Most carbs were acid dipped in yellow zinc chromate. You can actually get a kit from Caswell's for your plating needs. Not cheap, but well worth the money. Just dip the air horn and fuel bowl in muriatic acid for 10-15 seconds, rinse and go to your zinc chromate tank. Dip in and out several times for it to recolor your parts. Get your desired color likeness then "shock" it in distilled water.
As for the base plate, bead blast it and you are done. It's aluminum. About the only thing that will happen to it, is it will oxidize. Just clear coat it in a quality clear.
For the screws, you can get black oxide concentrate from Caswell's as well. Clean your screws. Buff them if you'd like. Then put 9oz of distilled water and 1oz of concentrate in paint cup. Put screws in let sit for 3-5 minutes, pull them out and spray them with WD-40 to get a shine and to lock in the black oxide. And you're done.
For the brackets, linkage, cam, etc., you can get some cadmium plating from Caswell's. But, you'll need a heater and electricity to electroplate it to the parts.
