He's not kidding. "Had carbs" would probably be more meaningful, the latest ones I know of are from the WWII era.

Carburetted cars from the late '80s have miles of vacuum hoses and are maintenance nightmares. Just say no. This beast should rightfully be allowed to die.

If you gotta fix it I agree with the carburetor kit approach. Buy a bucket of carb cleaner and soak it. You can probably pick up a Mitchell manual for the era for less than $10 that shows the vacuum diagrams and tune up and troubleshooting procedures.

Even so, the chances that all of those vacuum hoses will ever be connected again the same way they were in 1987 is next to nothing. That is assuming that they were ever connected correctly.