Hello,

First of all I'd like to introduce myself here.
Even though I've been browsing this forum for a month this is my first post here.
As you can probably guess just looking at my name I've always been pretty much into Pontiacs and GTO's in particular.:worship:
I've owned a few and I still have a '69 Firebird project that needs to be assembled and a matching number '70 GTO convertible which I'd like to restore within a year (or two...) even though it's a nice sunday driver as it sits.:)

Anyway, the last couple of months I got an itch to get into a '77-'79 Coupe de Ville. :bouncy: I've always liked the '77-'79 ones a bit more because the roofline is a little sportier than with the '80 and later coupes which give those a bit of a limo look IMO.

I went to see a couple of them and some were very rusty, other very expensive, and so on.
Then I found the '79 CDV which I now own.
I'm sure this is really nothing special in your opinion as it does need some work here and there. But since I live in the Netherlands there are no mint granny Caddies over here.....:rant2:
My Coupe was last registered in 1999 in Minnesota. It's totally rustfree except for some surface rust on the frame. Paint isn't that great, it could use a repaint along with new rear bumper fillers. The chrome and trim is pretty nice and the interior is average, no tears in the seats but clearly used.
I could use the armrest pads, a dashpad and a new carpet.

Now onto the real issue here; this car once was a lowrider (although I don't think for a long time) and the dumba$$$ that worked on the suspension goofed around with it. :thepan:
The front springs were cut short but a little too short and both sides to a random length:mad: and in the rear the springs were replaced with something from another car (which makes the Coupe bottom out) with the spring perches cut off and the spring welded to the axle:thehand: :mad:

So now I'm faced with a problem; having springs shipped over from the US is way over my budget, and finding Cadillacs (or any other RWD GM car) in the junkyard is (very close to) impossible. Except maybe for some mid eighties Caprice sedan or wagon.
What should I go look for?!?!?
My ultimate goal for the Coupe is to handle a bit better and be lower in the front and a bit lower in the rear over the stock stance. And put on some 17" or 18" wheels. A little bit like Jeff Schwartz's Fleetwood coupe (a real inspiring car!):thumbsup:
Can I work with mid eighties Caprice springs front and rear? and maybe a Caprice rear swaybar?
Any other ideas as far as springs go?
Stupid remark, but will springs from a Jeep Cherokee (mid-late eighties) work? These cars can be found in junkyards over here. I know it sounds stupid but hey; maybe it's my ticket as far as springs go!

See ya!

Pretty much any Caprice suspension component is virtually identical, so that's probably what you should look for if anything--Jeep springs, I would forget.

Thats a beautiful car! looks pretty clean. Why do you want custom wheels? It looks so classy just the way it is. Love the color.

BTW, what size tires are those?

I haven't really looked at my tires as far as size goes....
Because the car stood for such a long time they're slightly dryrotted, so since they need to be replaced I want to upgrade them along with the wheels.:)

Actually the front suspension is identical to the 73-77 A/G Body, and the 70-81 F-Body. If you know 73 GTO's, enjoy having fun with that front suspension... 64-72 share front bars, but most are weak then anyway, the Cad probably has a 1" and maybe a rear 5/8" or 3/4", IF it wasn't removed or just never got it.

The rear is 73-77 A/G, and was carried over into the 77-96 B/D platform. GM got their money out of that tooling.

I have recently read on TeamChevelle.com that the 68-72 rear lower control arms are dimensionally the same as the 73-77 A/G arms, which I believe are shared in the 77-96 B/D cars. So if you have that monster 1.5" rear bar from HO Racing or Herb Adams (aka, HA bar), then you do a simple LCA swap and you can mount the better mounting for the monster rear bar without going with expensive rear LCA's from BMR, Hotchkiss, Dick Miller Racing and the like.

Front, F-Body 1.25" bar is a shorter lever and much improved bar over stock, which the largest ever on the 77-96 cars is 1 1/8". Even the Impala SS from 94-96 only got 1 1/8". 9C1 cop cars use same bars as Impala and FE2 Cadillacs from 94-96.

Impala SS wheels are a bolt on. You have the 5x5 pattern.

Rear axles from 73-77 ~should~ fit, I haven't actually got one to measure yet. 77-96 8.5" axles are plentiful. A note is the weak 7.5" did find its way into the HT4100 cars, but they are also in the 82-02 F-Bodies too and take a lot of punishment. And all HT4100 cars have 3.42's stock. Unless High Alt, then they get 3.73's. So don't turn down a HT4100 axle if you want low buck good gears. Unless you have slicks, or tow, you won't have much problem unless you are abusive to it.

Now this is what I call solid information!
Thanks NODIH!!

I wish I still had the HO racing front springs and sway bar that I purchased for my '69 Pontiac LeMans back in '94:crybaby:

Anyway, I'll see if I can get a set of springs from a Caprice.
Maybe one day I'll run into a WS6 1.25" sway bay (although the WS6 cars aren't easy to find as parts cars over here nowadays)

And as far as the rear sway bar goes, I don't know if it ever even had one when it left the factory:confused:
Can I get a rear bar from a Brougham Limousine and use that without too much trouble? Or do I need to get the Lower control arms from the same donorcar as well?
:highfive:

Do a search in this forum for FE7, I wrote up some of my findings there too.

Nutshell: Limo, Impala SS, 9C1 and Fleetwood FE2 are all same bars. Impala SS and FE2 Fleetwood same spring RATES (confirmed in front, but not rear yet, but being my Fleetwood can handle 840 lbs tonque weight as it is a tow package car, as stiff or stiffer...), different heights.

If you can get the bars cheap, go for it. Same P/N's as others. Extra LCA's are nice, as hard use they can break with aftermarket uber stiff bars (aka, HO/HA rear bar, which is why I want to use the 64-72 A/G body rear bar).

The search engine is giving me o findings on FE7 and FE2, but I'll keep trying.....

Try F41 too. I posted, but I don't think I started the thread. Look for 73-77 too, that might find it.