What’s the value of this ??

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Brooks James

Brooks James

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Sorry no pics
Carter AVS 4640as, original equipment all auto trans cars 1969 440HP 375 horse. I bought it cheap and it’s in great condition. I plan on doing a bang up resto on it. My question is, how can I get the most money for it.
1) Sell it as is knowing that a Mopar guy will want it for a resto and wants to do his own rebuild
2) Completely recondition the carb, advertising that it was run on a test engine
3) Rat hole it till the prices are crazy
4) clean it well but leave the patina lol
I’ve looked around and seem from $99
Needing minor repairs, to $250 plus shipping
Guys I know there is someone here that can give an honest evaluation.
 
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Just my $.02 here, but unless you have a good name as an amazing carb rebuilder, its tough to get more than "core" value for it, especially if it's been "restored".

Don't take this as me saying you can't restore it, the problem is that proving its been done extremely well and that the carb will perform like a NOS part is near impossible, IMO.

So, that said, I'd go with #1 and ask a price that seems to reflect exactly what you've got.
 
Prices will never be crazy on those old carburetors as long as the similar Edelbrocks are as reasonably priced as they are. Your market for that type thing is very, very narrow, expecting premium price. You're looking for someone who has the exact year and model car that particular number came off of that's missing theirs, or wants one rebuilt to replace theirs. Most people simply pull the numbers carburetor put it on the shelf and put the Edelbrock on. I would suspect $200 would be an absolute maximum.
 
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Brooks James said:
Sorry no pics
Carter AVS 4640as, original equipment all auto trans cars 1969 440HP 375 horse. I bought it cheap and it’s in great condition. I plan on doing a bang up resto on it. My question is, how can I get the most money for it.
1) Sell it as is knowing that a Mopar guy will want it for a resto and wants to do his own rebuild
2) Completely recondition the carb, advertising that it was run on a test engine
3) Rat hole it till the prices are crazy
4) clean it well but leave the patina lol
I’ve looked around and seem from $99
Needing minor repairs, to $250 plus shipping
Guys I know there is someone here that can give an honest evaluation.
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The 4640 application is for an a/c car.

IMHO, I don't see this particular carb as being in high demand.
For a core needing rebuilt, start at $125-$150 and be prepared to hang on to it for a while or being flexible to lower the price if anyone is interested.
 
I'd "rat hole" it. Hopefully some day you could stick it to someone who needs it. Profits would help finance your build.
 
Not wanting to hijack your post but I needed a 4640SA for a 69 GTX years ago and it turned into an obsession. I now have six 4640’s plus other years and models. This is what I have now and that’s after I sold 10 on eBay years ago. BTW, I averaged a little over $100 each on the ones that I did sell.

98E5EAE7-D852-4C3B-AC3E-F0D04D1D8982.jpeg


4532FBEE-E4BD-45C7-A54E-75B01902F427.jpeg


A0C8871A-82EC-40FD-81D3-B8B28BFC39CE.jpeg
 
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RustyRatRod said:
Prices will never be crazy on those old carburetors as long as the similar Edelbrocks are as reasonably priced as they are. Your market for that type thing is very, very narrow, expecting premium price. You're looking for someone who has the exact year and model cat that particular number came off of that's missing theirs, or wants one rebuilt to replace theirs. Most people simply pull the numbers carburetor put it on the shelf and put the Edelbrock on. I would suspect $200 would be an absolute maximum.
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$200 will work I only have $40 in it plus the kit, misc. $100 spent. 100 percent profit will work.
 
Thanks, guys. After much thought I will rat hole it. Even if a restorer doesn’t want it, It’s still a good carb for other applications.
 
You wont believe how many parts are in that carb to do a show restore that need replated.
I did one for a guy that wanted everything nickle plated.

IMG-20130326-00001.jpg
 
Brooks James said:
$200 will work I only have $40 in it plus the kit, misc. $100 spent. 100 percent profit will work.
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If it looks really nice and it's right, I cannot see why you cannot get that. Places like Harms get more.....but of course they offer warranties and such.

That's one reason I got out of it. There's just no really good way for a do it your selfer to clean them. None of the soaking cleaners are worth a crap anymore. There's blasting, but there's no way to assure you get all the media out of the carburetor passages. There's the ultra sonic cleaners, but the one I have is supposedly a really good one, but I've had absolutely ZERO luck getting it to work well, so it's a POS.

The big guys use tumble polishers and those aren't cheap. Most everybody I've found wants them cheap as hell and perfect. So I just stopped doing it. I thought I had found a reliable way in soda blasting, but I had a storm throw a tree through the shop a while back and take out my big compressor and blaster, so that's when I said ffff it. I have had both going again for a while, but I'm just not getting into it again.

I wish you good luck. I had none.
 
RustyRatRod said:
If it looks really nice and it's right, I cannot see why you cannot get that. Places like Harms get more.....but of course they offer warranties and such.

That's one reason I got out of it. There's just no really good way for a do it your selfer to clean them. None of the soaking cleaners are worth a crap anymore. There's blasting, but there's no way to assure you get all the media out of the carburetor passages. There's the ultra sonic cleaners, but the one I have is supposedly a really good one, but I've had absolutely ZERO luck getting it to work well, so it's a POS.

The big guys use tumble polishers and those aren't cheap. Most everybody I've found wants them cheap as hell and perfect. So I just stopped doing it. I thought I had found a reliable way in soda blasting, but I had a storm throw a tree through the shop a while back and take out my big compressor and blaster, so that's when I said ffff it. I have had both going again for a while, but I'm just not getting into it again.

I wish you good luck. I had none.
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Ive had great luck with SnoBowl toilet cleaner which is diluted hydrochloric acid. It only takes a few minutes as I found out the hard way . I left a carb in it overnight and found that the aluminum had completely dissolved !!!
 
brian6pac said:
You wont believe how many parts are in that carb to do a show restore that need replated.
I did one for a guy that wanted everything nickle plated.

View attachment 1715749916
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Right! Most aren't happy unless it looks like a show piece. Doing "all that" is really for the concourse crowd, because it puts the price beyond that of a new carburetor. People see one that doesn't have a "perfect" finish and don't like it.

There's also the crowd that doesn't understand the little guy. Like me for instance. I never had a test mule when I was doing it and let people know that and my prices reflected it. If you're not willing to or are unable to at least remove the top and reset floats or make other adjustments, you probably need to go EFI. People have no idea how many different float adjustments there are for the same carburetor on the same or similar applications, so it's really a "guess" since every combo is different. Sometimes, things need final tweaking or adjustment once in the customer's hands.

It's a catch 22 for sure. I did the best I could with what I had. I probably honestly should have stayed away from it. But my thinking was I might could help some of my forum buddies and make a dollar or two. Doing Thermoquads, for example, isn't something you can really make "reasonable" money on because there are so many adjustments and so many variables AND the kits are expensive. Plus, the end user better be ready to do some adjustments up to and including removing the top and people just don't understand that. I don't care who you are doing it, unless you have a carburetor flow bench or a test mule, (or deep pockets) there's no way to guarantee anything. I do still do the occasional carburetor, but only for local people that bring the CAR so I can tune them and get them dead right before they leave. But I've done maybe three in the last as many years. Other than that, I won't do one.
 
Brooks James said:
Ive had great luck with SnoBowl toilet cleaner which is diluted hydrochloric acid. It only takes a few minutes as I found out the hard way . I left a carb in it overnight and found that the aluminum had completely dissolved !!!
Click to expand...

Well see, I'm not going to take chances with something not made for the job. How do you know what that's doing to the inner workings and passages? Not knocking what you're doing, I hope it works out. That would be cool. But there's just no way to know "for sure" since you cannot see it. My rule of thumb is, if it's possible for something to go wrong, it will. lol
 
Your carb has value as a core and easily double that if professionally restored which will cost you big dollars. If you are going after the big bucks, you will need to find someone that is restoring a numbers car that needs that specific carb. If I was doing that I would look for a good core and send it to my carb guy and not rely on someone else's work or worse, a spray can rebuild with a new kit. Put it up for sale as a core, capture your profit and go on with life.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Well see, I'm not going to take chances with something not made for the job. How do you know what that's doing to the inner workings and passages? Not knocking what you're doing, I hope it works out. That would be cool. But there's just no way to know "for sure" since you cannot see it. My rule of thumb is, if it's possible for something to go wrong, it will. lol
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I’ve used it before, just a few minutes will strip and have no returns. As far as not for the application POR was patented as an industrial adhesive
 
if you want to "rathole it", you better get a good carb kit for it and rathole that, too. Because carb kits are getting scarce, too. What good would the carb eventually be if you can't get a kit for it? But that involves spending more money and letting it sit, too.
I think the advice to peddle it, now, as is, makes the most sense.
If everybody goes to electric cars in 20 yrs, none of this stuff is going to be worth much.
 
rustycowll69 said:
if you want to "rathole it", you better get a good carb kit for it and rathole that, too. Because carb kits are getting scarce, too. What good would the carb eventually be if you can't get a kit for it? But that involves spending more money and letting it sit, too.
I think the advice to peddle it, now, as is, makes the most sense.
If everybody goes to electric cars in 20 yrs, none of this stuff is going to be worth much.
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I won’t go to electric cars till I have to. If it’s worth something to me as a mopar head, it will be worth something to someone else. Great advice on Carb kit
 
Brooks James said:
$200 will work I only have $40 in it plus the kit, misc. $100 spent. 100 percent profit will work.
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mcodecuda just showed what this particular carb number sells for in real life. Not advertised asking price.

The “ones that sell for big bucks” are different numbers, harder to find, and/or for more expensive cars. OR they are completely re-plated, re-bushed. Which costs and additional $200+

Save your rebuild kit for something else.

And sell it for $125-$100 without rebuild. That will be a 2.5 to 3 times profit from your $40.
 
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