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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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#2 ·
The floor is going to be bad. If you can see that hole with the carpet there, it will be spooky with the carpet gone. Dealing with the same thing in my 94 Caprice wagon right now. Thought I had a small hole where my heel is, found that the driver's pan is gone from frame to trans tunnel. This is a car that is undercoated, and still has factory paint on the other floor pans. It is because of the heat shield for the cat. All the moisture/salt gets trapped between it and the floor pan. Cut out the bad, weld in new metal.

Carefully check it out on a lift before you make big plans. Hopefully, the frame, and rest of the sheetmetal is ok.

If I needed gauges, I would remove the radio, put in a blank woodgrain plate, and run three gauges there. You could remote mount a head unit in the glovebox.
 
#3 ·
I looked under the car and saw the rusted floor pan and it not terrible but a lot of the drivers front is rusted. Is there a bolt in floor pan or is it all weld in? I was thinking of running the gauges in the glove box and just opening it when racing or tuning. Maybe ill see if NOLA can make something out of the ashtray(hint hint NOLA, lol).
 
#4 ·
Nice coupe, rust or not. I really like this body style as a coupe.

That local abandoned '84 CDV has finally turned up yesterday for sale (definitely the same car, there are only a handful of antique Cadillacs in the area and I know them all) but the guy is asking way too much for it, considering the outside of the car looks like it has been neglected for twenty years.
 
#6 ·
Oh no, I am not even considering buying it after seeing it up close. If I had one that needed a new interior, I would make a (low) offer. I know it must have mechanical issues, you don't normally abandon your car for six weeks and then suddenly sell it. I actually saw the owner once. He and another guy (Possibly his father, as he was a younger guy) were in the parking lot where it was left and everything you can imagine had been pulled out of the engine bay and sitting around them on the ground. It had been sitting there for weeks in a puddle of oil and coolant, which I am sure had come from it.
 
#10 ·
I had a section of the floor pan rusted thru, you could actually see the ground. This was the rear passenger side section. So I went to the JY and I got a section that they cut out for me and I took it to my friend and he did all the work in one day. And guess what, that section they cut out of the 82 coupe happens to be the same car I might get to swap frames from mine to that one...
 
#11 ·
I am not looking forward to seeing the condition of my floor pan. The gas pedal keeps falling off, and floor feels warped when I run my hand over it. I try to keep it dry (going as far as removing my shoes before getting in), but in the winter it's hard, and somethings the floor mat freezes to the carpet.
 
#12 ·
Yea, I just took a look at the 90 and it looks good from underneath. I think its gonna work for me. I started it up again and tried to move it, it didnt budge. The fresh looking tranny fluid smells so burnt. They said it worked fine and they would just move it around the parking lot but then it started messing up. I'll get some pics of the rust when I get it on the lift.
 
#13 ·
thats a nice coupe Sam. It seems odd how the body panels are really clean (except for the typical spot 2 or so inches behind the rear wheel), then it has bad rust on the inner fender and floorpan.
unfortunately all the coupes I see are in the junkyard (shame too because some of them were super clean- and the junkyards wont sell a complete car.)
I feel pretty lucky that my car has no floorpan rust (I've had the whole interior out) and only 1 rust spot on the drivers sill (my guess is from salt getting under the sill plate)
 
#14 ·
Yea, one of the benefits of living above the salt line. So is sitting salt the main factor with rust or is it the snow? I think I found the cause of the rusted floorboard, a leaking windshield.
I was looking at the reciepts the dude gave me and he got everything done at a dealership and spent tons of money doing it. Tons of receipts and they show that the car has been driven only 18K miles since 1996. I will be parting out this motor so if y'all need anything, let me know. I will also be parting out the all black de'elegance leather interior of the 90.
 
#15 ·
I think its the combination of salt+ moisture that causes rust to accelerate quickly.
The windshield would cause floor rot over time (but it would take years of not being tended to.) the floor carpet shows signs of holding some amount of water for some time. my dads olds wagon had a similar looking carpet on the pass side from an undetermined leak. It was blue with white splotches in it (although that could have been from the newspaper we were always lining the floor with in order to sop up the water.)
 
#17 ·
So I got it on the lift.
Body seems straight on both sides. Top is a little faded, stained and showing wear. Small cracks so far but no rips.

Interior is very nice, de'elegance trimmings. The only blemish is the cracked dash pad but I have a good one in the 90.



A little concern is the gaps in the body panels, they seem to split at the top. Is this a sign of a stressed frame? Its like this on the floor or the lift but a little better on the ground.



Overall, I think I'm gonna go ahead and swap everything over.
 
#22 ·
Robin, its yours. I'll look tomorrow for what you're looking for. Kevin, I've always wanted a coupe. They are about 350 lbs lighter and feel different inside for some reason. Now that I think about it, I dont really have a good reason why I like the coupe so much more but I do. The interior was so nice that I couldnt say no, I just gave him the money and was back in an hour with the dolly. The 90 was such a good base for the project though, so much work went into it within the last few years but I just cant turn down the coupe.
 
#23 ·
Thanks cs.......... I will come back to you with mailing info. In the meantime, I must tell you that I repaired the floor in my '81 Junkyard dog (sedan deville) which was originally from New York and Toronto and to which the salt had done its work under the driver's feet much worse than yours. One of the parts cars I bought to supply parts for the JYD was a nice clean dry 81 FWB from the bone dry Okanagan part of BC. So with a cut-off wheel and die grinder I cut away all the bad metal in the driver's side floor and then cut the matching piece from the parts car 1 inch greater all the way round. Then hammered the new panel into a tight fit and removed it. Took a can of roof sealing tar and laid it around the overlap, drilled some screw holes to tighen it into place and then went to work with a box of pop rivets and fastened it into place. Yep.... it's Mickey Mouse but it worked perfectly and after all, it is only a JYD. I guess I should have taken pix of the repair but I did it eight years ago and it is still in place and so far, dry.
Cheers.........R.
 
#24 · (Edited)
I was thinking about screwing it into place since I dont have a welder and the guy that welds for me always says "we'll work out a price later". I think I see the piece you are talking about, its the piece that tightens the alternator. The screw and block on the alt? I'm excited about this, I may pull the motor tonight since I cant drive it around and it would be 100 times easier to move it around the place without the engine/tranny in.
 
#26 ·
I was gonna sell it for parts. I just know after taking the rearend out that I will not want to put the other one on. So the interior and any panels, doors, fenders, trim, etc etc will be for sell. I have a complete black leather de'elegance interior with no rips to the seats, barely any wear on the driver seat. Everything except the carpet, seatbelts, dashpad(keeping it), headliner and stock steering wheel(but comes with the aftermarket wheel).

Got it out by 3:45am.
 
#27 ·
That thing seems like it's in pretty decent shape. I'd pick up a pan from someone on layitlow out in cali or something and weld a replacement back in. Look into Mig welding I heard it's pretty simple to pick up quickly and works on a lot of body repairs. Seems like a shame to scrap that car.
 
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