So the other day i bought an 83 Cadillac coupe DeVille with 96,000 miles for $850. The interior is a little rough when you look at stuff closely, but my biggest concern is the rust on it. it has quite a bit on the sides and only one hole on the passenger door panel. My question is....does anyone know where i could get some brand new body panels? worse comes to worse i'll just go to the junkyard and snag a few pieces. But i want a fresh start on as many of the panels as i possibly can...

any thoughts or links are greatly appreciated.

Junkyards going to be your best bet. Or a parts car....
They dont make new parts for these anymore.

I saw a guy had a NOS GM quarter panel for a 79 Coupe... he wanted $1000. Im sure to somone who has a primo 79, with a wrecked 1/4 it MAY be worth it. But good luck.

Then a also saw a nOS GM quarter for a 90-92 Brougham... Then a few months later i found a 29k mile 90 with the same quarter buckled, for sale.... would have been a great combination


But anyways....
Good luck

thanks for the advice, and yeah i'm going to go to the junkyard Thursday and hopefully score myself some doors, Taillights, and a Trunk Emblem. oh and another question...i was wondering how difficult its going to be to remove the interior pieces on the door panels...i mean i suppose the best possible outcome is that i find a matching color and then just cut the wires long. but lets say i don't, does anyone have a walkthrough of some sort so i break as little as possible? thanks

Doors will work from any 80+ Coupe DeVille or Fleetwood Brougham Coupe.
Tail Lights, 80-89 DeVille's and fleetwood Broughams (coupes, sedans, RWD) 90-92 Brougham tail lights will not fit!!
The door panels are easily changeable....
If you take doors off unplug wires, dont cut the harnsess, its alot easier to plug then splice...

Also when you find doors, take the door panels off and look on the inside of the door, the inside skin, there you will see if the door was ever dented, and filled with bondo, or rust repaired, or even just rust starting from the inside out.


Where are you located?

Here's the the step-by-instruction that I used faithfully several times to remove my door panel(s).

I know the whole process on my 89 Brougham, I've done it so many times, i bet i could do it in my sleep. First there are a pair of screws hidden under the door handle, the one that you pull on to close the door, one on each side. Then there are a pair in the opening lever as well. The light cover can be popped out with a flathead screwdriver. Now if you look up under the armrest where the light assembly and door lever used to be, there are two screws securing the control panel. Take those out, and pop the control panel out by pulling it towards you. There are two clips holding it to the door panel in the back. They're metal, so they shouldn't break. Now there should be two more screws in the door that were hidden by the control panel, take those out and that should be it. To lift the door panel off, you need to give it a good firm whack inward at the center of the top. There's a built in clip mechanism that keeps it in there. Gently lift the door panel, and make sure you have something to rest it on so you don't put any strain on the wires connected to the control panel.

We don't have the exact same car, but I'd imagine the process is pretty close to what I've described.

Here's another description of the process.

OK, this is based on my experience with my 77, and I'm assuming (dangerous, that) that 76 will be similar. Start by removing the trim panel behind the interior door handle release, then reach up inside and disconnect all the wires that power the windows, locks, etc., and detach the remote sontrol toggle for the side view mirror. Remove the trim on both ends of the door pull strap using a thin flathead screwdriver. There should be very large phillips head screws behind them that hold the strap and the door panel to the door. Unscrew the manual door lock button on the top of the trim panel. Now it gets tricky, since the panel is now held on only by some pastic button tabs which insert into holes in the door. Start from the bottom, as I *think* the door panel does not go all the way down, that is, there's a gap between the bottom of the panel and the bottom of the door. Most of the buttons will break (brittle with age), but replacements are available at any auto parts store. From there, you may be able to go around the edge and loosen the other tabs. If the door was open, once all the tabs are detached, you just slightly lift the trim panel up from the window sill, and it's off. I don't know if you'll be able to get that far in your state, but you'll likely get enough of the panel off/loose to see inside the door. I'm sorry I don't know more about the interior workings of the lock mechanism, but if you remove the passenger side trim panel, you can use it as a comparitor to see how things work and what may be broken/jammed on the driver's side.

Good luck, and thanks guys for the helpful input over the years.


Greg