Bucket Seats

My car came from the factory with the standard interior Diamond Pattern Cloth with Vinyl Bolsters in Black, trim code 410.

ELDORADO STANDARD INTERIOR
Diamond Pattern Cloth with Vinyl Bolsters

COLOR/CODE

Black 410
Aqua 429
Covert 440
Maroon 449

The front bench seat was equipped with the optional 6-way power adjuster (2-way was standard).  When I acquired the car the black cloth front and rear had been replaced with maroon cloth.  I don't have any confidence at all that it is Maroon 449.

It is in very good condition however.  Any interior modifications could wait till other more important issues were dealt with.

Then I started to read.  Leather bucket seats with a center console were offered with or without headrests and a passenger recliner.  Both buckets were 2-way power adjustable with a 4-way driver optional.  Apparently the bucket seat option was very rare at only 1-2% of the annual production.  Without really looking for them, I found a set of black leather buckets on ebay.  I had to have them.  Don't even ask how much shipping from St. Louis was.

This photo makes them look pretty good.  They are not good.  They will have to be reupholstered but the back seat will have to be done anyway.  Note also the power seat wire harness.  Yikes.  These are the 2-way power buckets.  Not sure if I can adapt the 6-way motor and transmission but I'll try.  Later.  Way later.  These will go into the trunk till I get to them.

Junkyard Dog

Today was my first trip to a salvage yard.  I paid the $2 entrance fee, got a handstamp, had my toolbox inspected and passed through the turnstyle.

I was directed to the back wall of the junkyard to the american cars.  I found only six Cadillacs:  a 79 Eldorado, an 89 DeVille,  a 90 Fleetwood, a 94 Seville, a 97 Eldorado and an Allante.  This picture is typical of what they look like on the inside.  In some case, from the front end you can't tell what they used to be.  Headlights, bumpers, hoods, engines, wheels, transmissions....all gone.  I even saw an electric glass sunroof removed from one car, track, wiring harness, switches and all.  Crazy.

I was looking for a photosensor so I can someday install the Twilight Sentinel option that my car was not ordered with.  I found three of them and bought them all just in case ($4 each).  Good thing I did too, one tested bad at home.  I also found a headlight switch that had the Twilight Sentinel controls ($15).  Then I got greedy and yanked a climate control head unit ($20), a wiper switch ($10) and two driver's door power mirror controls ($4 each).  I figued these parts were easy to disconnect and surely they would be easy to sell on ebay.

Lessons learned:

1)  Don't pull parts off just because you THINK they may be valuable.  You're paying for something you might not be able to sell at all, let alone at a profit.  For example, the power mirror controls I paid $4 each for.  When I got home and checked ebay, I couldn't even find one for sale.  So I have no idea how to price them.  I would rather have found 2 or 3 for sale online so I could list mine at a reduced price for a quick sale.  So I probably just lost $8.  But some poor bastard is not going to find that one part he is looking for.  And some day, that poor bastard will be me.  It's called Carma.

2) Take gloves!  Either gloves to work in, or gloves to drive home in.  These cars have been sitting outside in the weather for Lord knows how long.  Plus there seems to be a layer of dirt/oil/grease/antifreeze/gasoline/diesel covering the entire place.  It's one big Superfund site.

3) Take the voltmeter.  Real easy to check for conductivity in most sensors and switches.

At the end of the day, I'm very happy I found the Twilight Sentinel parts.  I listed the climate control unit on ebay for $50 and the wiper switch for $45.  I threw out the bad photosensor.  I'll keep the second as a spare.  The other could fail at any time.  Not sure what to do with the mirror controls yet.

Can't wait for my next visit to the yard!

Hazard Flasher

Well, in quite possibly the easiest repair to date, the in-stock hazard flasher at Pepboys was a plug-in solution to my problem.  I actually hesitated inserting it in the fuse block.  And then I paused before I pushed the button.  I was nearly certain there would be either smoke from beneath the dash or the defunct cruise control would somehow miraculously come to life and drive the car through the garage wall into the living room.  But no, I now have emergency flashers in preparation for the inevitable side-of-the-road stoppage that surely is somewhere in my future.

Climate Control

While I had the car out in the driveway yesterday testing the antenna and radio, I thought I would do some initial testing on the air conditioning.  I have read a lot about the problems others have had with this system.  Most everyone's problems begin or end with vacuum issues.  Here are a few of my initial observations.  Under no circumstances does the compressor run.  This could be a controls issue or the refrigerant could be low or completely gone from the system.  The temperature dial seems to control the modulation of the heater door.  This is really good news since that door is buried deep in the firewall and it means the string of three temperature sensors is intact and working.  Sliding the mode lever from Off towards the right to Lo, Auto or Hi does nothing.  From what I've read this seems to be a common problem that will require a lot more time and effort.  However, moving the lever all the way to Fog or Ice, and then back to Lo, Auto or Hi seems to modulate the fan speed and open/close the proper vents.  Again, good news, meaning for the most part the vacuum lines seem to be intact and the doors functional.  After I address the known leak in the vacuum lines at the headlight switch I will revisit this system.  At least I can get the fan to blow ambient air.

Power Antenna Update

I stumbled upon a website specializing in hard to find parts for old Cadillacs:  CaddyDaddy.  Oddly enough I was able to access this site at work.  They sold me a new mast and it arrived on Friday.  Saturday morning I ambitiously tore apart the old antenna housing, removed all traces of the old nylon cord, clean and greased everything in sight, fed the new cord into the housing, assembled the parts and reinstalled them in the front fender.  As of Sunday morning I have a completely functional power antenna.  As a bonus, the radio actually tunes in FM Stereo stations!

I've learned so far that each project usually spawns a few small projects or leads to the discovery of a new larger project.  During this project I figured out the front speaker doesn't work at all.  I'm going to search for a correct dash pad with two new front speakers.

Also, the hazard flashers don't work.  The flasher itself is missing from it's mounting postition on the fuse block.  I'm hopeful an off the shelf flasher from Pepboys will work.  I'd rather not find out that the flasher was pulled for a reason, or that the switch is bad.  I've read that replacing the switch on a tilt/telescope steering column is not for the faint of heart.

Random Pictures

Power Antenna

Since I was so successful the day before, I thought I would start work Saturday, April 30, 2011 on the power antenna.  Normal operation of this antenna is to pull on the radio on/off knob to raise the antenna and push on the knob to lower the antenna.  The motor can be heard running in both directions.  That was good news I thought, since I could rule out the radio itself and all electrical to the antenna.

Years ago, I had replaced two or three antenna masts on my '90 Corvette.  The part was only about $12 but it was a bitch to replace requiring you to lie on your back under the rear quarter panel loosening the antenna and simultaneously releasing years of dirt directly into your eyes, ears, nose and throat.  I would be so lucky with the Eldorado.

The service manual gives very good directions to remove the motor and mast.  The mast was bent slightly but more importantly completely missing the toothed nylon tape that pushes/pulls the antenna mast up/down.  Three trips to two PepBoys and an AutoZone resulted in no workable solution.  At this point I'm still looking for the mast.  At some point I may have to resort to a complete replacement of the power antenna, either OEM or replacement.