SU carb reconditioning ?

[30EK42]

What actually wears out and how much does it cost to fix ?
As far as I can see there are two major areas which can't be easily fixed -
The throttle butterfly assembly, shaft, bushes etc.
The piston/carb body fit

I just checked out Burlens prices for new HIF44s
Over £600 each (out of stock anyway)

This sort of puts the price of a new Weber/Edelbrock 4 barrel carb and manifold into perspective.
There seem to be a lot of people offering "good as new" reconditioned SUs, but are they that ??
Can they really be refurbished to "as new" performance ?
What should I expect to pay for a quality job ?
Any finally, what sort of milages can these carbs run up before they are noticably shagged out again ?

Apologies for the plethora of questions, but I really have next to no experience of these carbs at all

[DaveEFI]

The piston doesn't touch the dashpot, and assuming they have had the normal service lubrication should be fine for an enormous mileage. As regards the throttles, the spindles tend to wear more than the bushes - and of course later ones have seals anyway.

Generally, unless abused, a good clean with new gaskets and seals will sort them out. I also replace the float valves as a matter of course - and examine the needles and jets for wear.

[paul c]

I bought the rebuild kits from burlens, and a few other parts as I was reconditioning a pair of SU's but ended up getting a local Austin/ Morris specialist garage to do the job, I was surprised how cheap it was and they look like brand new. They werent actually that bad for wear so the spindle bushes didnt get replaced, the shafts and butterflies did though, with solid butterflies rather than the valved ones.