Just bought this car (christened Jackie) on Aug. 23rd out in Cedar Rapids, IA...I think she was worth the 1100 mile round trip.  84K, no rust, paint still shines, has some scoot, leather and wood in good condition for being 17 years old.  CCR suspension is original but will probably need to be replaced with passive struts in the next 5-10K miles...the front end is a little bit floaty.  Nearly all the electronic stuff works except of course the Bose stereo.  Capacitors for the speakers are pretty cheap though and I should be able to fix each speaker for about $4-5 in parts.  HU is another story and I'll need to find a shop that can repair the CD mechanism.

Which brings me to my point of having this page.  This is a 17 year old Cadillac that was pretty special when it was new.  It was fairly complex for its time and with age, comes age related failures.  I hope to use this page to show what I'm going through and the kinds of things that I can and can't do myself.  Maintaing this car will be a continual process and there's things I've learned already from a couple Caddy forums I now belong to along with buying an FSM off ebay.  Coolant needs to be religously changed once a year regardless of mileage and either the GM coolant supplement or Bars Stop Leak Gold needs to be added at that time.  If not, you risk coolant leaks, especially at the intake manifold gasket.  There...you're enlightend for the day.  But as I do stuff and learn stuff, I'll pass it on to you.

Front seat area and dash...no cracks, no horrendous stains on the carpet though it could stand to be cleaned.  I will have some better pics sooner or later...these are just the ones I took when I first saw the car out in Cedar Rapids.

What continues to shock me is how small this car is compared to my '06 Grand Prix.  This thing sits low...about 2-3 inches lower in height than my GP.  It's about 10 inches shorter and overall, the interior is about the same size as my old '91 Maxima.  Seats are actually quite comfy and were easier on my backside driving this car home from IA than the GP seats were getting there.  Go figure.  Front seats will benefit from a couple treatments of Leatherique and I may pop for a re-dyeing kit as the bolster on the driver's side seat next to the center pillar is starting to show a little wear.  It's pretty minor but taking care of it now will mean it won't be falling apart like some other old STSs and ETCs I've seen for sale.

I'm 6'5" and barely have enough room out back.  Forget "sitting behind myself" though.  Headroom is tight with the moonroof, legroom is not generous.  The tinted rear windows saved the leather and wood back here and not to mention it was probably always garaged.  There's no leather that feels like cardboard (remarkable, considering this cars age) in the rear seat area, not even on the headrests.

This is part of why I fell in love with this car...the amount of leather and wood Cadillac actually managed to stuff in this thing.  The door panels are all leather trimmed, along with the entire seat including the seatbacks.  The burl elm is starting to show some age as the finish is cracking on the driver's door.

Again, very good shape for the age.

I actually found the cap for this handle under the rear seat...no missing cap now.  Even the handles are leather covered and the "Oh $h*t" handles on the headliner are leather wrapped as well.

You can see the reflection of the rear wheel in the wood...NICE.

I was amazed at how well this car cleaned up.  I clay barred it since I noticed after the first car wash the sound the towel was making when I was drying it off...sounded like I was going over sand paper.  Even with just doing that and not having time to apply polish before the wax, it's amazing how much shine is still there.

06-27-2009

Been doing a major service on the car...new Delco struts; R1 Concepts brake rotors, Satisfied Pro Performance brake pads, new calipers; tranny service with new fluid, cooler lines; new oil cooler lines; new radiator and hoses; will need a starter while everything's apart; new oil pan gasket; refurbing the leather with pics of THAT project to come soon.

Needed to get a Facom 289.36 nut splitter to break the rear top strut nuts.  If you have one of these cars, find that tool and forget messing with any other method to get the strut nut off...do not waste your time.

Repainted license holder bezel, removed the cheesy, curvy paint stripe that was on the trunk lid.  Much cleaner, back to the original stock look.

Yep.