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84 Coupe Deville Project

153K views 758 replies 45 participants last post by  jayoldschool 
#1 ·
Just picked up a new 84 Deville De'elegance. Blue on blue with the soft cloth seats. The outside looks good as does the inside. It has 142K with a bad tranny and a motor that wont idle down. I only had it running for 10 minutes but the temp light came on. I looked under the hood and saw some melted wiring and some small mods but it all looks intacked.



Completely stock interior looks to have survived very well with the only defect being the locks not working.

Then comes the bad parts. The rust on the drivers floor board, its the only part of the floor board with rust

There is a rust hole in this fender thats hard to see. You can see the tire, just not in the pic.

Never did a floor pan though, are they a pain to deal with? I havent had it on the lift yet but the rest of the frame looks good. The plan would be to switch over the complete drivetrain from the 90 to this 84, everything except the interior mods, I like the interior as is. I would need to put some gauges somewhere though, any ideas?
 
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#79 ·
Thanks, I'm pretty excited about it. Maybe a little too excited...wanted to hook up the battery stuff tonight and dropped the negative wire on the positive terminal and it stuck on. Well, sparks turned to glowing metal which turned to fire. Kept the fire contained to the positive terminal area thanks to my friends drink. Lost five wires(2 grounds, alt, starter and crossover positive), overflow res and melted the inner fender. That takes talent.

 
#82 ·
So made a little progress but not much. Got the old fuel return lines out and finished the starting circuit. Couple things I've noticed, my passenger side header sits on the frame. What is the long term affect of this? Maybe if I raise the tranny, it will move it off. Also, I'm trying to figure out the wiring for the fuel pump. I would be able to just run a ignition wire to the fuel pump lead but wouldnt that have the pump on all the time with the key in run? Is there a way to keep the prime feature without the computer?

Car has been repainted but past the magnet test in every spot.

Also, took the seat skins off the black seats to ship them out. Pretty cool design.

Underneath the button tops

Says ST NAUGAHYDE 91
 
#83 ·
You can't have that header resting on the frame. It will wear through, and in the meantime give nasty resonance through the frame. Don't alter the angle of the trans. That will give you driveline vibration. You'll have to mod the header. Is it the collector or a primary? If a primary, dimple it with a ball peen hammer. If the collector, cut it and re-angle.
 
#86 ·
Its on the frame behind the upper control arm. And I meant the temp of the engine runs about 180 degrees when warmed up, dont know if that has anything to do with clearance. 180 is considered low as far as cadillac motor temp. Ill snap some pics in a minute.
 
#87 ·
Got some work done. pulled the fender and rear end.

Half of the trumpet horns

Power anntenna


Stock rear end, 7.5" 3.42s

91-96 Caprice 9C1 disc rear end w/3.73s and adjustable upper and lower arms

The workstation, I call it Stall One. We do everything in here from small parties to a shooting range.
 
#90 ·
yes. I dont recall where they are though. I have a couple horns lying in my van, so I'll put up a pic of where to find the letter tomorrow night (unless anyone else wants to beat me to it)

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Sam, how do you get the fender off without removing the hood and door (since they block several bolts)?
I need to change out my dead power antenna (as well as touch up the bottom of my fender and push out some of the "character") and would like to just be able to pull the whole thing off as one instead of having to remove the hood and door to do so.
 
#91 ·
The door and hood didnt block anything. When you open the door, you'll get two big bolts. You got one under the fender near the door, one up at the window cowl, the ones holding the hood hindge, a bunch going around the inner fender and like three by the front clip. The hardest part was the lower ones going down from the hood hindge. You may be better off just taking off the hindge so you can reach down in there and get the two bolts. this was for my 90 but I'm thinking its the same for you.
 
#94 ·
A little more progress. Got some more welding done.
Underside of front floor pan

The bad corner. too bad to weld some metal in, had to cut a section from the white caddy. What a pain...and we missed the cut again. Kinda dissapointed in this corner but we'll see how we finish it.

The other side. Looks good but not done yet. And thats as far as we've made it on the inside.

Took a trip to see Bro-Ham and grabbed the wheels, wrapped them with 215/70/15 BFG Touring T/A Pro Series. Tires are nothing fancy and the wrong size but they handle well on heavy cars.

Roughed in the fuel lines, it runs now. Its running like crap, hopefully its just the choke not hooked up causing the issue, havent looked into it much. Does the choke only control the butterfly on top of the carb or does it do something with gas also? I cant really drive it because there is just a milk crate as a seat.

Overall, making progress but would like the interior to be done so I can drive it around a little.
 
#97 ·
Thanks y'all. It is coming together but moving slower than I want. Working around someone elses schedule is rough. The wheels do look nice, you know Dave keeps his Caddy in good condition so they came from a good home. Hopefully they can handle my lead foot. I just need to grab the front steering and suspension stuff off the white one and it should be done besides the interior. Hopefully it doesnt sit too low, the front is already a tiny bit lower then the back and it doesnt even have the impala springs on the front yet. The exhaust doesnt hang like it should so I'll have to mess with that also.
 
#100 ·
Thanks Dave. It looks and sits nice but the front is very spongy while the rear is stiff. Maybe it wont drop the front too much since the stock front springs are probably warn. I'm gonna have to put them in because I drive kinda agressive and so the less lean, the better. Maybe I should put the bilsteins in first to see how stiff it makes it.
 
#102 ·
So the car is running like crap still. I've tested for spark at all cylinders and its good. The only thing that has changed..I switched from a high stall converter to a stock one and a fixed fan to a clutch fan. Unless the fuel pump is different but I think the TBI unit is the same. The gauge reads 5/6 psi of fuel pressure after the regulator. I knew I should of read fuel pressure on the old setup. Bet it was lower. Ill have to mess with the regulator.
 
#103 ·
So the issue is the choke. If I hold the butterfly open, it runs great. I'm happy to have found the issue, I was going crazy. The interior is still bare metal but I put the drivers seat and seatbelt in so I can drive it, we'll just call it weight reduction for now. This just shows how much I need to learn about carbs.
 
#104 ·
So I've been driving it around the last couple days and its still a beast. Its better off the line without that 2K stall converter in, it was just too high of a stall.
Got the Impala suspension and new steering components off the 90.

Poor car didnt stand a chance. Its sitting on the bump stops up front and springs only in the back. Its done now, can finally get it out my driveway and to the yard. Found the previous owners for sale sign inside the door when we were taking a window motor out. He wanted 3500...might have been worth 25 but I dont think he woulda got 3500 for it.
 
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