Martha!

Dam - My radiator shop cleaned my gas tank, pressure tested it for leaks and coated thr inside for $75 bucks. Check it out.
Dick

That was my first stop, Dick - I went to the guy who pressure tested Faulkner’s heater cores. He doesn’t do them… There is this company in Ambler that does them, but they want $300, and it takes a couple weeks. I redid Savannah’s (my '55 Plymouth, now long gone) tank with this kit and had good success with it - it took a couple of hours, probably the time it would take me to twice drive to Ambler and back.

Yea, probably best you do it yourself.
Dick

Doncha know, Martha has a build card! I got the info from FCA today.

Ah, those optional directional turn signals. And arm rests! Everything a handyman could want, in a two door suburban. And Berkeley green! But I already knew that.

I was able to find this out about Warner Motors in Napa, California where Martha left the showroom, from this website:

That now-closed Mervyns is now a Kohls. So, here is where Martha once graced a showroom:

Not all that far from where Mike Williams found her and bought her in 1977, and put her under cover 20 years later. Hardly a barn find, but still, it makes for an interesting story!

Nice bit of research there, Dan!

Thanks John! And I’ll continue to add to this thread, since I don’t own www.54plymouthsuburban.net :laughing:

Martha’s brakes are just about complete! They replaced the axle seals while they were are it - I seem to recall something about that :astonished: I also asked them to drop the pan, clean out any gunk, and remove the lifter inspection plates and clean out there. All new gaskets, of course! There’s a little gunk in the pan, but the engine is very, very clean. Some pix…

Martha came home today! Well, a piece of her did… :unamused:

They dropped the gas tank so I could refinish it. Wow! It’s in spectacular condition - not even dented. Those California days have been good to her:

I’ll use the chemicals to soften and remove the varnish - even though it probably needs little more than that, I’ll go ahead and coat it with the coating in the Eastwood kit. It looks like the retainer for the sending unit is the same size as Faulkner’s, but it’s too cold in the garage to go searching for the removal tool.

The carb rebuild kit had the incorrect accelerator pump - it turns out the tag on the carb is incorrect! A couple of photos, and the right carb kit is on its way. As is a choke cable; the old one is broken. At some point in Martha’s history, the automatic choke broke and a manual one was installed. I’m sticking with manual! I hear those old Sisson chokes were tempermental.

Also, on closer inspection I can see that the lower hinge on the car door is cracked in two places. This pic is from a friend’s Suburban, you can see where it’s spot-welded to the A-pillar; I’ve circled where Martha’s is cracked at the top.

I’ll take it to a body guy and ask his thoughts, but it looks to me that it can be spot welded in place. But if not, John Fowlie, I will come a-calling…

A fun video snippet from a DVD I recently bought… Yeah, it’s a '53 Suburban, but the '54 is virtually unchanged except for the badging (Cambridge and Cranbrook Savoy Suburban for '53, vs. Belvedere and Plaza Suburban for '54). Martha is a Plaza Suburban: