Photos of engine & carb.

Right, Here's some photos of the engine and carb. There's an orange and white sticker on the carb saying Holley, so I'm guessing it's not original. There's tons of petrol coming up when the accelerator is pushed. I reckon it's also ticking over a bit faster than the 480 -500 rpm it suggests in the owners guide which came with the car. It has a big round steel air filter to go on top, about 14" dia. with the inlet spout at front. It has the Hydra-matic gearbox and I just presume the engine is the 389 cu. in. Any ideas on Holley? carb settings? And what are those big crayon numbers hand drawn on the bulkhead/firewall?

Thanks you guys for all your suggestions so far. I'm feeling my way around this car as you can see.

Simon

I think that it is an original carb. for this car. It looks exactly like mine, and mine also has the sticker, but i think it reads 'remanufactured by holly', so i always assumed that it means that the carb has been rebuild by holly at some point - it also looks like the pictures in the shop manual, so my guess is that it is original. It looks like it is using a hotair choke, where i have a vacuum operated choke (not original).

Ironsmith.....those crayon marks were put there by workers on the assembly line at the factory. They represent various inspections in some cases, and/or alerts to workers further down the line to install a particular part or accessory. What they meant is anyones guess fifty years later. Most restorers of old cars, foam at the mouth when they find such markings; taking great pains to photograph them and then reproduce them during the restoration. As for your carburator, it is a Rochester 2 barrel, rebuilt at some time by Holley. It is similar to the original, but a much newer model with all those extra capped vacuum ports, and the choke pull-off on the right rear. This was an emissions era carburator, probably from the mid to late '70s. Not a bad carburator, but usually jetted a little lean, and with potential vacuum leaks at those extra capped ports. The good news is that they are easily rebuilt and the parts kits are readily available. As for your drivability issues, I would first suggest a good through tune-up, including a compression and vacuum test, followed by the usual points plugs condenser rotor cap and wires. Set the dwell and timing base vacuum and centrifical advance. One other area of seeming lack of power is misadjustment of the kick-down linkage between the carburator and transmission. Hope this helps.....John

That's a Rochester. Not sure if it's original but it is an old Rochester.

My car also had writing on the firewall. I don't know what it means. I think mine said 159 or 157 or something.

Thanks for the advice Catbird

CATBIRD- The 159 on your firewall most likely will mean the 1-Catalina (Series) and 59 for the model year. Or it could be the body # from fisher. What is the last 4 (or 5) digits of your VIN? I have found Crayon (Grease pencil) marks all over my '59. They are on the frame, axle, firewall (I found a 159 as well) and on top of the fuel tank. The body number from Fisher Body for my car is BK1545. The VIN is 5140...The body #'s and VIN's usually don't match..unless the car is a special build or rare optioned car. A friend of mine years ago had a '67 Mustang with an X'd out VIN tag and a blank trim tag on the cowl from the factory. He could never find any info on the car...it had absolutely no options whatsoever...the wiring was minimal (i.e. no radio, heater, spare or jack mounts in the trunk). He sold the car to a guy who made a race car out of it because he never had a title (just the factory MSO) for it and could not register it.

Bad news, I'm afraid. Here in France business has been badly hit, like everywhere else, by all this global finance crisis/scam/banking stupidity/theft whatever you want to call it, and my custom has dropped radically. So the old girl had to go. The buyer was a great guy to hand her over to and although the car is in good hands, I'm gutted. Still, my wife assures me, when things pick up which they surely do, then we'll be looking for another one. At the same time I wouldn't say no to a '38 Indian Scout. Always had the old motorcycles.
For now I'll say thanks for all the imput and I'll be checking out -59.com as I do.
Signing off
Simon

Ah that sucks! Hopefully you'll pull through and get another one