Howist man, welcome......
Truth be told they can be fixed, but sometimes tend to have silly, complicated and often costly issues as a lot of these cars do have. But if you're really keen and ok with doing some work you should be ok, plus there's tons of 518s around so I'm sure you can get another carb. Or you can go the webber downdraft route or maybe even side draft, but that's Lots of work..... Don't let it deter you too much though......