[Flathead Fever]

I don't see any reason to send the carb out to rebuild it when you can do it yourself. I rebuilt carbs as a professional mechanic for 30-years. These early carbs are as simple as a carb can get. The main thing is to spray into every orifice and make sure all the ports are clear, the float is set correctly, and the air fuel is adjusted properly. When they were new, they were started and used every day, so they never had the chance for the carb to dry out.

Let the car sit for a few days and don't try to start it. The first thing you want to do is pull the air cleaner and look down the carb and see that the accelerator pump is spraying fuel. That will tell you if the fuel evaporated out of it or maybe the accelerator pump is bad and it's not spraying. Do not turn the ignition on or disable the engine so it will not start. Then I'd pull the line off of the carb and put into a glass jar and crank it to see how long it would take to fill up the carb cranking it. Do it outside and be very careful not to burn your car to ground while testing fuel issues. If it takes a while to pump fuel into the jar than I'd start looking at something related to the pump. I see a lot of the fuel pump stands that are warped "a lot" at the bases where they bolt to the intake. That warpage cuts down on the amount of travel the fuel pump has and might be why its has to crank so long to fill up the carb. Make sure the rubber hoses are new between the engine and the tank. I use fuel injection hose because it will last a long-long time.