1967 Carb rebuild kit recommendations

[OneTireFire]

Hello all!
I recently inherited my Grandmother's 1967 4-door with 390BB. My late grandmother named the car Betsy and She was the second owner. She worked for the original owner, from which she bought the car. Betsy sat for over 10+ years and about 4 years ago when my grandma passed away, the car was given to me. I have had many memories in this car and wanted it since I was a child. Surprisingly in really great shape for her age, she has 68k original miles on her. I'm no stranger to old fords, I have a 65' mustang and am also a service technician for Mercedes-Benz. So restoring Betsy will not be too hard for me. However I have been searching for Carburetor rebuild kits and am unsure of the best one to get. I want to spare no expense for Betsy and would like to know the opinions of other Bird owners what the absolute best kit to buy is and where to get it. Thank you for taking time to read!

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[biddle]

Added model year to subject for you.

 

[OneAmongOthers]

Why not go for a better carburetor to pep her up a bit instead of mucking around with the original one? Unless originality is you game that is.

 

[OneTireFire]

I am torn on whether or not to do just that. The car is in pretty good shape and has all of its original parts. What would you recommend as a replacement for the stock carb? holley 500 cfm?

 

[OneAmongOthers]

600 or 650 in my opinion. I have a holley 650 on my 1969 and she runs really good with it. I feel 750 would be probably too much.

 

[OneAmongOthers]

Also rip out the points if she still has them and get a Pertronix. Car will run much better with a more modern ignition system.

 

[OneAmongOthers]

I use Daytona Parts kits for all my carb rebuilds (and I do a bunch of them for vintage Corvettes) -- https://daytonaparts.com/find-your-carburetor-kit.html

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Personally I would rebuild the original carb; once you start swapping out original parts they rarely find their way back...

But isn't that the point? I mean if I were to swap out an original carburetor for a new one why would I want the old one anymore? Now granted if your aim is originality I agree with you completely and should rebuild the original one. However if originality isn't a concern then why not get something more modern and something that is going to perform much better and more reliably than something made fifty years ago.

 

[Frankie the Fink]

I see it all the time in the vintage Corvette community; somebody thinks there is some hot carburetor they can swap onto their car that'll jazz it up. A lot of 'em go with Edlebrocks or a generic Holley, then they have to deal with matching up the intake manifold perhaps, jiggering the throttle linkage, mating issues with an air cleaner possibly and then there is hood clearance issues - maybe not as bad on old TBirds. And then of course they don't understand that many "bolt on and go" carbs are not optimized for their application; they are set up to make it easy for the DIY mechanic to get them running swiftly with minimal work. So then they spend time rejetting the carbs, monkeying with idle air bleed setups and on and on. Anyway, its your car so do as you please...but be aware carburetors are pretty basic, the old ones, and the new ones, still operate on the same principles.

 

[OneAmongOthers]

I see it all the time in the vintage Corvette community; somebody thinks there is some hot carburetor they can swap onto their car that'll jazz it up. A lot of 'em go with Edlebrocks or a generic Holley, then they have to deal with matching up the intake manifold perhaps, jiggering the throttle linkage, mating issues with an air cleaner possibly and then there is hood clearance issues - maybe not as bad on old TBirds. And then of course they don't understand that many "bolt on and go" carbs are not optimized for their application; they are set up to make it easy for the DIY mechanic to get them running swiftly with minimal work. So then they spend time rejetting the carbs, monkeying with idle air bleed setups and on and on. Anyway, its your car so do as you please...but be aware carburetors are pretty basic, the old ones, and the new ones, still operate on the same principles.

That’s like saying a tire from 1960 runs on the same principles as a tire from 2019. 50 years has made significant improvements. Though I agree with you a lot tend to muck things up not knowing what in the hell they are doing (myself included) but a modern ignition and carb would benefit a lot more if you wanted to improve things. Now if like said before originality is you goal I completely agree that rebuilding what in there is worth it. I mean after all it worked all this time. So that in itself is a testimite to its reliability.

 

[Frankie the Fink]

Carburetor development stalled quite a bit when fuel injection came out. And then there were some sorry offerings in the aftermarket. Like Barry Grant’s Demon carbs. If you think later stuff is always better that is one example you don’t want to use. Nuff sed. I’ve got 60 years dealing with carburetors of all kinds.