Will it run? - Carb rebuild

Now its time to start the process of seeing what there is to work with from a fuel and fuel delivery perspective.  I had already unhooked the gas tank early on a couple months ago so since it didn't drain much I figured the tank was probably pretty empty.

Once the screws that hold the tank in were removed, the tank came right out.  Manuals show some putty/sealer in the seam between the trunk and the tank- but if it was there, it was long since deteriorated.  The void left by the tank is seen above.

Here's the mouth looking into the tank.  The picture doesn't do it much justice, but when looking into the tank it does look okay on the inside.  I purchased a small telescoping mirror that I will use to look beyond the view seen here.  But - since I'm not there yet, that task can wait.

So - I've always thougth of gasoline as being somewhat a light golden/yellow color.  That's not de-icer in that jug - thats what I dumped out of the tank.  Nice it game out to be just about a gallon.  Wow - if any of this junk is in the carb- then I'm in trouble.

Next step is the carb.  Dad came over and we both walked through the disassembly of the two barrel carb.  We stopped by the Arnold Motor Supply store here in town and picked up the handy-dandy carb cleaner bucket in the picture above.  Lucky me - the carb pieces just barely fit in the can. 

I didn't get any pictures of the inside of the carb - but wow - the bowl in that sucker looked like it hadn't seen a drop of fuel in a LONG time.

Here's the carb sitting in the can - it put out a pretty bad smell.  After huffing it for an evening I woke up super sick the next morning.  Next time the mask is going on for work like this.  It works great though... the solvent melts off all the junk that was on the carbuerator.  With this and an old toothbrush - things cleaned up well.

After cleaning and reassembly - here's the finished result.  Nice and SHINY.

So - the big question - does the car run once its got fuel and spark (I checked) - will the car run?  Interestingly enough - the answer is yes... and IT RUNS pretty well.  There's a little bit of top-end chatter, but past that, the car does start, warm up, and rev.  The carb definitlely could use some tuning - but knowing that the old 302 runs and feels good... it says a lot.  I tried to put it into gear earlier - and it didn't want to go into drive or reverse - so there may be some issues with the auto transmission.  Oh - well - I'll probably go with a manual transmission anyway.