[Dick Boneske]

Anyone have a picture of a Carter AFB that is colored like it left the factory.

Specifically, I need to know if the throttle levers are plated bright zinc (silver) or yellow zinc (gold)Also, after media blasting the carb body and air horn, do you guys apply a protective coating or leave it natural aluminum?

I'm doing an AFB for a '65.

[61-63]

The metal hardware was silver (clear) cadmium not zinc. The bodies and airhorns were a sort of medium dark gray that had some sort of finish on them but I have no idea what it was; perhaps Jon Hardgrove will know and comment. The choke bodies were potmetal most of the time and were colored just like Rochester tripower bodies and airhorns. I have run into aluminum choke bodies though. I have taken pictures of NOS AFBS and will see if I can find them and will post one or two if I do. This will give you an idea of the correct color. Some high end restorers have the bodies and airhorns treated with Alodine which is a good coating but does not look right. I just double bead blast them and then dust them with Eastwoods Satin Clear which keeps them from oxidizing, and then once on the engine the greasy atmosphere created by the running engine protects the finish. Carbs I do also do not look correct but I've not found a way of duplicating the correct original finish.

[61-63]

Not my pictures but these appear to be the correct color on the bodies and airhorns,

[tom s]

Here are pics of a true NOS AFB with fairly large pics.Tom
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-CARTER-...53.m1438.l2649

[61-63]

Originally Posted by tom s

Here are pics of a true NOS AFB with fairly large pics.Tom
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-CARTER-...53.m1438.l2649

Yep that's it.

[Dick Boneske]

Originally Posted by 61-63

The metal hardware was silver (clear) cadmium not zinc. The bodies and airhorns were a sort of medium dark gray that had some sort of finish on them but I have no idea what it was; perhaps Jon Hardgrove will know and comment. The choke bodies were potmetal most of the time and were colored just like Rochester tripower bodies and airhorns. I have run into aluminum choke bodies though. I have taken pictures of NOS AFBS and will see if I can find them and will post one or two if I do. This will give you an idea of the correct color. Some high end restorers have the bodies and airhorns treated with Alodine which is a good coating but does not look right. I just double bead blast them and then dust them with Eastwoods Satin Clear which keeps them from oxidizing, and then once on the engine the greasy atmosphere created by the running engine protects the finish. Carbs I do also do not look correct but I've not found a way of duplicating the correct original finish.

---------------------------------
Thank you for the info. It appears from pictures that the only gold color is the springs and some linkage pieces on the passenger side.

FYI, I've taken carb linkage parts to a plater that does cadmium and have taken the same parts to a plater that does zinc. If the surfaces are prepared similarly, the appearance of cad vs. zinc is very similar. In fact, if similar pieces were presented to me (or anyone else), without knowing which is zinc and which is cad, I could not distinguish between the two. Research will tell you that they have similar anti-corrosion properties, with zinc being slightly better than cad. Getting parts cad plated today is nearly impossible due to gov. regulations on the cancer hazard. I'm not trying to be a smart a**, but this is what I've observed.

[61-63]

Actually you will see some variation in colors on steel components and springs depending upon the year and make of car the AFB was produced for. Some mopar carbs had red springs on the pass side linkage. Some AFBs had a green coating of some sort on some of the pass side linkage components. I have seen gold springs and some silver springs that appeared to be chromed or at least very shiney compared to most. I mostly deal with early 60s Pontiac, chevy, and mopar performance AFBs and all were silver cad and silver springs in my experience. Ed Giolma used to restore a few and he would have some of the pass side components done in gold cad because he liked the contrast mixed colors give you. I've done a few that way too. As far as the cad plating I am lucky because there is so much off shore drilling stuff made down here, and cad protects against salt spray better than zinc, that Houston has quite a few cad platers still doing business. I send my plating to an outfit called Delta Specialty Coatings in Houston. http://www.deltaspecialtycoatings.com/

[Jerry H.]

Just my 2 cents worth on zinc vs. cad plating. I've noticed that most zinc is very shiny when first plated vs. cad that is fairly dull. Over time (years) I've noticed that cad will hold up better; zinc seems to dull down quickly and even notice some zinc break down completely and start to surface rust.

[Dick Boneske]

Thanks for the input on the plating, Jerry H. and 61-63. It's an interesting subject.

I media blast the steel parts with glass beads, which leaves a much smoother surface than more aggressive media. Even at that, the zinc plated finish is relatively dull. If I want a shinier finish, I wire wheel the parts before plating. The yellow (gold) parts show surface defects even more than clear (silver).

[Dick Boneske]

Variations are also common on Rochester two barrels. I have some NOS end carbs that have the airhorn screws silver instead of black. Some fast idle cams are silver, some are yellow. The accelerator pump rods & levers are usually yellow, but some are silver. Nearly all the center carb throttle levers are yellow.

Usually, when disassembling any carb, you can determine the original colors by examining the protected areas behind screw heads, etc.

In any case, thanks for your suggestions and pictures. .

[Dick Boneske]

Still waiting for info on correct finish on AFB's. Would like to duplicate factory color as closely as possible. It takes no more effort to do it properly than to do it improperly.

[Cardo]

Dick it looks to me like they're a bare casting. I soda blasted mine and left it bare. It came out nice.

[61-63]

Dick after you posed your question I googled it, called my Houston cad plater who plates much more than just cadmium (he only does alodine), and read some on Jon Hardgrove's site, and all I came up with was darkening aluminum by spraying a lite coat of olive oil on it and then baking it at 100 degrees f. Jon's site says Carter produced them untreated but that can't be if all of them were the darker gray because fresh untreated aluminum is bright silver, which dulls out as it oxidizes Bottom line for me is that Carter treated them with something that gave them a dull medium dark gray tone but I have no idea what they used and can't seem to get a lead on it either. If you figure it out please share it with us as I would like to use it to.

However, with all of the above said, the pictures in old Hot Rod magazines of original SD setups on Mickey Thompson's and other cars, and in recalling all of the real SD AFBs I've held in my hands, which is quite a few, they appear to be untreated. Only single four barrel carbs in the original boxes seem to be the dark gray color. So I'm not really sure what they should be?

[tom s]

I will check tomorrow if one of my SDs still has the factory stamps on it.If so will post pics.Tom

[Dick Boneske]

We never paid attention t details like this back in the day. The thought of these details ever being important in the future was the furthest from our minds as we enjoyed our cars. So many times, I've thought how easy these things would be if we had cameras like we do today.

[tom s]

Checked mine out today,no factory marks.Sorry.Tom

[61-63]

Here's a set I just finished for someone. The carb body and airhorn were bead blasted twice with dirty beads. By dirty I mean a number of bodies had been blasted with them. Intakes too. First at 80psi and then at 30psi which beats down the roughness the 80psi blasting leaves, to the point where they do not appear to have been bead blasted. I then dusted the bodies and tops with Eastwoods satin clear to keep them from oxidizing and acquiring any of the white powdery surface you sometimes see. Had I used fresh beads, especially on the final blasting at 30psi, the bodies and tops would be bright silver. I never really realized it, or had forgotten over time, but the bodies and tops are fairly dark. Compare the aluminum to the fresh cad plating on the steel components. The choke bodies, which are pot metal, were sent out and have been chemically colored.

I'm not saying this is the right was to do it but it is what I've been doing for years.

[61-63]

Pic of the other side.

[Cardo]

Those look really good. I still need to do the plating on my linkages and such.