What happened to the old car market???
 

We are busier than we have been in decades!!!!!

This is absolutely NOT a complaint, but haven't been fishing in a couple of years. Could clone myself 4 or 5 times and still be busy.

I cannot put a trend on what is selling, as we make carb kits for 1897 through 1974; but getting orders from about 1903 through 1974.

Pontiac sales are in the top 5, but Caterpiller is still number 1.

Other good sellers are Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick, Nash, and I.H.C. Very little activity, at least for us, with MoPar or Ford.

Top selling carburetor brands are: Ensign, Marvel, Stromberg, Carter, Rochester, and Zenith.

For anyone that is GOOD with rebuilding carbs that would like to increase their income, there is a tremendous market right now for GOOD carburetor rebuilders. We turn down an average of 25 jobs per WEEK!

Jon

Looking for afb carbs even good cores for the new bathtub intake. I have stock mid 60s afbs from Pontiac 4 bbl. I'm looking for more cfm. Thanks Bob.

Bob - PM sent.

Jon

Im glad to hear your business is booming. I read about the ls swaps and EFI on forums and thought the carb was going the way of Dino. I run a carb in my T/A and will be doing so with my current project as well. I grew up driving carbureted cars and know their 'ticks' so I have no problem. I assume mine is properly tuned as I can hit a pump on the gas and it will start up with no problem, anytime of the year. I talk to a lot of guys at shows and have even read about swapping to FI and hear about the multitude of problems they have/had. Once dialed in they seem satisfied but the best comment most of them say is 'It starts on the first crank every time'. Mine does as well and at a much smaller cost.

I seriously doubt if many Packard, Pierce, and Duesenberg owners will be doing LS swaps ;) Don't know how they would work in a Caterpillar!

If I lived in Colorado, and had to drive to work daily, and went from 1500 feet to 12,000 feet twice a day; I would think about the possibility of considering efi.

Jon.

When things get expensive and money tightens up ... maybe people start thinking about getting that old piece of equipment or car sorted out instead of buying a new toy.

Lots of videos on YouTube pulling ratted out vehicles sitting for decades and getting them to run/drive again. There's a huge viewer market watching those and it's sparking interests, even through generations of family members.

I know I'll catch flack for this statement here, but there's finally some big interest in older cars that goes beyond the muscle car era and deservedly so.

If we end up with E15 at the pumps, will it work in our cars. I've heard no and yes. Does anyone really know?

Sure, E15 would "work"... almost as well as E10 "works"...:rolleyes:

I think we can quit worrying about E15 talking over. People are finally realizing how inefficient gasahol really is- the huge amount of fuel burned to grow/harvest corn, etc.

I would think most Cat's are diesel injection.

Early Caterpillars used gasoline engines.

Later Caterpillars with diesel main engines have starting a.k.a. "pony" engines which are gasoline. The early gasoline engines used Ensign carburetors, as did a few of the early diesel pony engines. Sometime in the 1930's, Ensign was purchased by I.H.C. and Caterpillar started using Zenith carbs for the pony engines.

As far as our orders are concerning, I am very encouraged in that, while there are still a number of folks that want carburetors; the rebuilding kit business is at an all-time high. There was a period a few years ago when hobby newbys didn't want to fix anything; just replace it (too many television shows).

But there are a lot of enthusiasts that would like someone else to rebuild their carburetor. However, many of these go ahead and order a kit when informed we no longer do rebuilding.

Very encouraging that so many are now willing to repair, or learn to repair, their vehicles.

Jon

Glad to hear folks doing something constructive with older vehicles, besides scrapping them!!

I watch Restored, and Vice Grip Garage, mostly. There’s many others, most don’t know how to produce a proper video. Tried to watch two young guys get a straight 8 Pontiac running. They talked endlessly, and acted so goofy, I had to shut it off....

A friend had a D7 Cat dozer for a while. It had a pony motor on it, it was in terrible condition, he got an eletric starter to work.

There's a fellow in north central Minnesota who has a YouTube channel, where he restores old Caterpillar tractors. His videos are pretty good - there's no fooling around or trying to act funny, he just goes through them in intricate detail This spring he rebuilt three pony motors that are used on D2 Cats; the step-by-step process was real interesting. They were pretty trashed to start with, so he had to do some creative machining and mechanical repair to get them back to operating condition (he rebuilt the carbs, too. :) ) https://www.youtube.com/c/squatch253/playlists

I'm completely BURIED in parts sales here. Retired from everything else and still running 2-3 days behind most weeks filling orders.

I turned down half a dozen requests yesterday for carb rebuilding. Probably averaging 20-30 a week. It's a great time and opportunity for the right person IF you want to get into that business for sure...........

Built two TH400, sort of a "last call", just before moving to AL (again). Still got somefight in me, but practicing retirement.

A complete Q-JET rebuild is tougher on me than a TH400, probably because of the external details, wear zones, parts conditions, and standing there at the bench has always been hard on me. Maybe a sit-down bench would help. Since my Q-JET performance result has been a matter of close but not excellent (for high-compr Q-JET on low Compr 455), the TH400 brings more confidence to my eagerness to take on.

Cliff, perhaps you can write up a specific instruction on the mods needed for early hi-compression Q-JETs to perform on 9.0:1 engines. I'd pay for thaat.

With all the talk about "nobody wants to do...", there still seems to be just enough hard-working folks in my circle, albeit 1-deep. Professionally, very high turn-over on a rather excellent project/program except for the company i'm helping (an old gig with rather dedicated staff). The CEO commented the worker shortage and turnove is everywhere. I commented but no here. He said but we can't find anybody new, we need more people.

If one were to do the carburetor rebuilding requests that Cliff and I together no longer do; should be enough to keep a "mom & pop" business doing great!

Jon.

I'll bet your area has some great Large mouth Bass fishing holes Jon!:)

Quality parts/service providers in our hobby will always be busy (like yourself), but I know what you mean about things going wild recently. My business usually runs along at about 300%, but this year is running more like 500%. Meaning I am turning down 5 customers for every one that I agree to transport for. I have been trying to wind down over the last couple of years to do more fishing, golfing, car building, etc but it is tough to say no most of the time!

By the way, I was very impressed with the quality of parts in the kits you sent me for the dual carbs on my Nash! Now I just need some of that precious time in the shop to do them!

God Bless
Bill
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...closed.614419/

If someone needs to have a q-jet completely restored, can anyone suggest a good place?
I have correct -255 carb (for my 68 H/O - sorry) but it needs much work.

I'd like to thank carbking for talking me out of buying one of his old carbs - to try and work with what I have. I've been looking for a correct stick-shift q-jet for my 69 GP HO 4spd.
My existing carb (a mid-70s replacement) was not working well, but after talking with carbking and adjusting the secondary flaps to be tighter, I improved my ET by .8 sec and my MPH by 5!
Also thanks to Cliff - great kit for the carb I have.