Current Carb Restoration Experts for cars going to judging

[Don W.]

Hi All,
Who are the current restoration experts to get work done with? Is Philip Cancilla the go to guy? I've seen some good input him; any other suggestions?
Thanks,
Don

[Mike F.]

Re: Current Carb Restoration Experts for cars going to judging

I've only had one experience with Phillip. I had a properly functioning 70 L-46, but with the wrong carb on it. I got an overhauled carb from Phillip. I bolted it on the car and it was obvious it needed attention. A raw fuel cloud was coming out of the exhaust. I called Phillip to discuss, he was pleasant and offered to repair/fix as needed. One of his suggestions to me was that I should disconnect my vacuum advance, as the L-46 didn't need it and that some how that was causing a rich fuel mixture. I decided to go elsewhere for repair.
I sent the carb out to Lars for repair. Lars repaired/un-did what was previously done to the carb as best he could. Some of the issues were passages drilled that shouldn't have been, jets & metering rods were incorrect sizes, float was set incorrectly, etc. etc.. I received the carb back from Lars, bolted it on my car, set the idle, and haven't had to touch a thing. I contacted Phillip, he issued me a partial refund.
In hindsight, I would still buy un-restored parts from Phillip.

[William F.]

Re: Current Carb Restoration Experts for cars going to judging

Who's "Lars"?

[Mike F.]

Re: Current Carb Restoration Experts for cars going to judging

Who's "Lars"?

He has numerous papers on tuning carbs/timing. He's a regular on the Corvette Forum. If you search his name, lots of positive feedback. He's done two carbs for me and they have performed flawlessly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_Grimsrud

http://www.corvette-restoration.com/resources/how_to_articles.htm

[Michael W.]

Re: Current Carb Restoration Experts for cars going to judging

Note that Lars does not do cosmetic restorations for judging purposes,

[Bill W.]

Re: Current Carb Restoration Experts for cars going to judging

I have used Bob Kunz from St louis. They look and run good .

[Chris S.]

Re: Current Carb Restoration Experts for cars going to judging

I have used Kunz and Daytona Auto in Florida
The Daytona carbs run PERFECT !

[John F.]

Re: Current Carb Restoration Experts for cars going to judging

Robbie Kunz.

[Jim T.]

Re: Current Carb Restoration Experts for cars going to judging

Mike did Phillip say exactly why your L46 did not need the benefits of a good operating distributor vacuum advance?

[Mike F.]

Re: Current Carb Restoration Experts for cars going to judging

Mike did Phillip say exactly why your L46 did not need the benefits of a good operating distributor vacuum advance?

Either he doesn't understand how the system works or he thought he could B.S. me into believing my car was the problem. There were other excuses/reasons he threw out, but once I heard about disconnecting the vacuum I knew I needed to go elsewhere. I don't think he realized my car was a running/functioning correctly vehicle until I installed his carb. I literally pulled the functioning 507 off, installed the 207 and the problems started, all in about an hour.

Some of the issues found;
Missing inlet needle clip,
Incorrect jet/rod configuration, it had 74 jets in it which were marred up with a screwdriver and damaged. Stock is 76.
Loose secondary airvalve spring setting
Accel pump jamming in bore
High float
High APT setting
IFR passages in float bowl drilled out

[Patrick H.]

Re: Current Carb Restoration Experts for cars going to judging

I have used Bob Kunz from St louis. They look and run good .

I don't believe that Kunz does Quadrajets, which is what Don needs to have restored.

I've had fair-to-OK (but no better) luck with Cancilla, and someone else on here recently had really bad luck with Cliff Ruggles.
Honestly I don't know of a Quadrajet restorer that does excellent work all of the time. Jerry Luck used to, but that was at least a decade ago.

If anyone else has suggestions for you I hope they let us know.

[Don W.]

[Mark D.]

Re: Current Carb Restoration Experts for cars going to judging

What about Dick Katter? Does he still rebuild the Q-jets? He has a good rep, I heard.

[Kenneth B.]

Re: Current Carb Restoration Experts for cars going to judging

I have used Kunz and Daytona Auto in FloridaThe Daytona carbs run PERFECT !

I called Daytona about my 7040205 carb for my 70 454 that has a leak at the plug by the fuel filter & was told they would only totally restore the whole thing & some parts would not be the original color. Carb is in otherwise nice shape & the conv. is a survivor type Corvette & I want to keep it that way. Can the plug be peened or otherwise fixed ? Don't want to use JB weld that was on it when I bought the Corvette 15 years ago.

[Mike F.]

Re: Current Carb Restoration Experts for cars going to judging

Hi Patrick,
Thank you for pointing out the clarifying info and yes, I do need a q-jet restored. My car is a 69 427/390 auto. The correct carb is a 7029204, dated within 6 months of my Nov 1969 build date. Every few years, I get the urge to search the web for a 7029204. I did that early last week and found Philip Cancilla’s web site, custom rebuilt carbs. I sent in a web site inquiry asking about 7029204 stock and he sent an email response stating he had three 7029204s in stock, including one dated 1679 and provided delivered cost, post show quality restoration. He asked if I wanted photos sent for any of the in-stock 100% authentic unrestored units I responded yes for the one dated 1679 and waited.
I did not hear back so, after a day or 2, I searched the web for 7029204 1679 and found the unrestored carb on ebay from a different seller.
After thinking about it for a day, I decided to pull the trigger on the unit and made the purchase on ebay and it's in the postal system on the way.
I can send photos pulled from ebay on the unit if anyone wants to send me a PM with their email address.
Don

If you found an unrestored carb, you are way ahead of the game. Lars' opinion is most overhaul shops cause more damage than good when they get their hands on them. Here is a list of threads started by Lars over at CF, you can pick through what he has to say about quadrajets.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/sear...rchid=41296042

He was correct about the two carbs I sent him. The one that had been on the car for 20 years needed very little, the newly overhauled one was a mess that need major surgery.