Take the black cap off and see what is in there. It could be just disconnected or out of adjustment. I see the electric conversions on ebay for $25-$30 - but I have no idea of their quality. Mechanical or electric, both are easy to work with and both use the same principle of heating a spring to change the tension on the choke plate.
Until you get the car running and ascertain the condition of everything else....I wouldn't worry about fixing the choke right now. Get it running first.
Yes at 30-40*, at 65+ isn't going to make that much difference, carb probably needs rebuilt anyway... Oftentimes why a 6cyl was parked, carbs are junk after 6-8 years of operation... If it was so-so, no doubt worse now... The black housing is adjustable, loosen screws and it rotates to adj... If it doesn't move choke flap, probably the finger to linkage isn't in spring as it should be... There are 357* of rotation to get it wrong and maybe three that's correct(I'm allowing 3* of slop in spring loop)... If spring fits into slot, you have less margin of error...
Well I was finally able to test it. Turned out the carb needed a rebuild (of course) and a fuel pump. Put it all together today and it's aliiive! Runs pretty good, just gotta dial in my idle and perhaps a couple other things.
Well I'm in a real pickle now. I went out to try to start this thing again and it'll ignite for a second and then immediately die, as soon as I let off the key