'99 DeVille? Cheap?

My aunt's old Caddy. I bought it for $150. If I can make it run and drive with it's current drivetrain I might find some inappropriate racecar use for it or try to flip it. If not I'll either part it or junk it. I'm not entirely sure why it was parked but the symptons I was told sound like fuel system problems to me.

Job 1 is getting a battery in it. It got a new one before they parked it but it's dead now. My attempt at jump starting it was aborted when I hit the key and saw smoke from the back of the engine bay. Not really a great sign but I'm not giving up yet. 

In reply to Daylan C :

The Cadillac addiction is a strong one. I went cold turkey 8 years ago. Still feel the pull. Let me know if you need FSM info. I should have one. 

In reply to Stampie :

With the late 90s cars I've always been more fond of Buicks mostly because of the 3800, possibly in SC flavor, vs the Northstar. But this was a within the family deal so cheap I decided to try it. I know this car has had the worst history a 20 year old Cadillac can have but I know most of the specifics of the abuse and neglect so I have at least a hunch of where to start unraveling things.

Nice!

I have most of a 97 around here if you need anything.

Codes and diagnostics can be run and reset through the onboard computer.

Let me know if you have questions, Northstars have been my family's go to dd for the last ~20 years.

Build it into a lowrider and bring it to the challenge.

In reply to slowbird :

Hydraulics will be hard to fit into budget and won't do well on the autocross. I'm also terrible at painting. The thought of bringing as a DD/Class Gastropod entry is interesting though. It will for sure put on a slightly better showing at the drags than my single cam Saturn, and after some soap and water probably judge better at the concourse too.

In reply to Daylan C :

I just had a terrible idea...jack up the back real high and just "fake" the hydraulics. Tell everyone it got stuck with the back up and the front down. Should help the car launch good at the very least. And the trunk will be angled enough to provide some downforce. 

Also, no need to get fancy with the paint. Solid purple would probably fit the Radwood theme well enough.

In reply to slowbird :

I mean logical speaking. 99. End of the radwood years. Would a brand new Caddy be a lowrider yet? 

In reply to Daylan C :

I mean, not within challenge budget at that time, but...yeah probably. I don't remember the 90s that well, to be fair.

Maybe others can speak to this more astutely, but I'm not sure if Radwood is so much a hard and fast thing of "this exact thing is still exactly as it existed in the 80s/90s", or if it's a thing of "this 80s/90s car ostensibly could have looked like this in the 90s, and here's why that's cool"

I think it would fit in the spirit of the Radwood class. 

I think logically the smartest approach would be to get the thing driving and then worry about potential lowrider builds later.

In reply to Daylan C :

Well, yeah. But this is GRM, we twist logic into knots here. 

I gotta be honest. I'm only 23. So all the theme ideas I'm thinking of are from the 2000s. I may just run with that and be the annoying 20 something in the obnoxious Caddy.

Edit: sort of what I'm feeling with it. Depends on what wheels I find really.

You know what, I fully endorse that concept. It may not be my thing, but I appreciate the sheer excess of that style.

In reply to slowbird :

I'm not normally a fan either, I'm usually a smallest wheel I can get away with kind of guy but that's what I think feels right with the car. But like I said. I haven't even confirmed that I can make it a driver again yet. So we'll see.

I kind of wonder what it would look on a set of steel wheels, of the circle/d-window... or whatever they're called... variety

maroon, maybe black.

kind of like the GM version of what G_Body_Man's old P71 was

In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :

Probably not bad at all honestly. The problem is being a front drive GM bolt pattern and offset so I don't know if that style wheel is going to be a possibility. 

I really need to decide what I want to do with the car. At one point I considered the car just being a challenge build and nothing else. Meaning ditch the air suspension, try to find some camber, find a set of 17x7s off of a newer front drive GM and wrap them with decent tires. Then go looking for weight to pull out of the car. 

The interior right now is moldy and smells like an ash tray, so the decision on full race car with limited use and a short life span or a street car I'll get bored with quick and pass on may come down to how much trouble it is to clean up the interior. Because right now it may give Hazmat a run for its money on the nasty interior starting point. 

You put time and energy into the weirdest stuff Daylan. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

I agree it's a problem. On the way back to the house after class now for round 2 of making start. If it would commit to self immolation it might be better for all of us.

You can't get more '90s than pearl white paint.  Budget a set of Vogues (or better yet, just paint the white/gold stripes on the tires) and run it as-is. 

Clean it thoroughly and carefully. If your trim moulding is in good shape it's surprisingly valuable:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1997-1998-1999-DEVILLE-TRIM-MOLDING-8-PCS-DOOR-FENDER-QUARTER-OEM-CADILLAC-/193115716988?epid=1311164849&hash=item2cf697fd7c%3Ag%3AixwAAOSwPiZdhrA4&LH_ItemCondition=4&nma=true&si=3hSWAmsxh%252FgyW8jHPsfwUaZzqcs%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

That sold for $469.99 plus $26.25 for shipping! It looks like the cheapest complete set in good shape sold for $300, and some of the pieces sell for $150 EACH if you sell them one at a time. Recoup your investment from the rear quarter trim and you have a free caddy to have fun with. Replace the trim with some adhesive foam or something. If you don't end up doing anything with the car, you can sell a grand or two worth of parts off of it pretty easily and send the hulk to the scrap yard.

Couple hours with the battery charger and it starts, idles and even charges but it's pouring smoke out of the tail pipes and any throttle input will kill it.

More investigation is needed me thinks.

Smoking already? What's the worst that could happen?

In reply to Jordan Rimpela :

I think the smoke is just from sitting. My extremely uneducated guess is huge vacuum leak.

Either way the patient has been moved closer to the shop and it's about time for me to go to work.

Those Cadillacs can probably shed 600lbs out of the interior alone!