95 caprice build

I finally got around to doing a bit of work on the 95 Caprice I bought from Adam a while back.   I'm going another long business trip after Christmas so I decided to get the car "winterized."  There isn't much if any snow here, and they don't use salt.  Still the temps dip below 5C so I wanted to put on tires more suited to those temps than the 285 rear and 245 front Goodyear F1 supercars. They don't seem to perform well in that temp range.   I ended up putting on the wheels from the WB4 RMW as they had 2 new winters and 2 new all seasons.  Since that one is stored for the winter, there isn't really any point in getting more tires.

Ever since I got the caprice I have had issues with the air ride.  It would start randomly during the night, and never really actually inflate properly.  The shocks were leaking and pretty much blown.  The discarded shocks were comically soft.   I pulled the ALC fuse almost a year ago and today I put in some new Koni adjustable shocks and moog CC623 springs that I had from a previous car.  

I had never really liked the CC623s because I thought they were too harsh with the car unloaded.  I set the konis to about 7/8" and I have to say I much prefer the ride to when I had the CC623s with stock shocks and even bilsteins.  The Koni shocks are relatively soft on compression, and only the rebound is adjustable.  The big increase in rebound rate seems to control the shocks a lot better.

I had forgotten how much removing the top rear shock bolts sucks.  I had some of Bill Harper's stainless U bolts but couldn't find them today (of course) so I ended up just reversing the screw direction.  The top of the koni shock is slotted so it was much easier to install than remove.  The spring isolators were fairly mangled so I put new ones on.

is this caprice the real clean black one with grey gut

Just swapped out the coil this week.  The car had been stalling/misfiring in the rain (it rains a lot in the PNW).  It started fine but would die as soon as I touched the gas, typical of a bad coil.  

So far so good!

I also picked up a set of 4 brand new Pirelli Sottozero winter 210 tires for $150 (cdn!) total at the Canadian Tire.  I'll throw them on some SS rims next winter.

I have an appointment to get the headliner redone in 2 weeks. I decided to forego adding additional sound deadening on the roof. I'll just seal the rivnuts and change / seal the wellnuts.

Well, the headliner is out.  

The car is at the shop getting the roof repainted.
The body shop is very good about working with me following my cash settlement with the insurance co following the break-in from last fall..  Currently looks like this:



I took off the roof rack.  Most of the thin rails are cracked.  I'll try to restore the rack/rails`colour with some "back to black."

Those rear shock bolts are the reason I was so baffled that guys were interested in those USED Monroe shocks a guy posted a while ago. No way in hell I'd put the labor into putting used rear shocks in!

I was thinking I had seen some replacements/deletes somewhere. Maybe on the Impala forum?

yeah Navy Lifer sells a stainless U-bolt to replace the stock bolts. Nifty to have, but not essential. The job is easier on a lift, and quite easy if you have a 2nd set of hands.

Does anyone have a trick to get the wellnuts out ? only one of 25 came out easily. All the others are wider than the hole, both inside and outside (normal). They are still in really nice shape, so I might just seal the crap out of them and reuse them.

Roof is painted. Looks great. Tomorrow I'll give a coat of Jet Black to the racks and re-install them. I'll upload a pic after that.

I ordered some bulk dynamat from amazon and will put it on the roof before re-installing the headliner.

I picked up a set of Pirelli winter 210 sottozero winter tires in 235/55R17 at the local chain store for $150 cdn total. 50$ each and they gave me a 50$ gift card for spending 200$.

Wasn't really looking for tires but they are moving and put them on clearance after they ordered them for a customer and the wheels didn't clear his brakes. I didn't complain.

But I needed 17" wheels. I sold my SS rims to macwoody when I moved from Ottawa to Vancouver Island 4 years ago. I just picked up another set in Ottawa for a very decent deal and brought them over to Vancouver Island last week. Funny how things work out. The guy didn't have the centrecaps, but I had a set leftover. The rims aren't mint but they'll do the job for a winter tire.

Also, my brother sent his 96 DGGM caprice wagon to the big junkyard in the sky. Big thanks to Jay for parting it out for us. Some of it's parts will live on. I brought back the 3.23 gears, truetrac diff, LT4 KM, SLP headers. That'll be going in soon (I hope).

I put dynamat over the entire roof and the new headliner is in. Not quite sure how much of a difference the dynamat makes. The inside of the roof was unbearably hot with the headliner off before. I could at least put my hand on the dynamat. I wanted to glue a layer of reflectix to the dynamat but the upholsterer recommended against that.

I repainted one of the roof rack crossbars and put the Jet Black on the other. I reinstalled them both after being off for 4 years. I had removed them to drive accross the country, figuring it would probably improve mileage by a minute amount.

I got the grey cloth Limited seats at the bus station today, so I guess I'll throw those in after I give them a good cleaning.

Today I removed the caprice seats and the carpet.  I sprayed the carpet with degreaser and power washed it.  It looks great now.

BEFORE:


I noticed water pooled in the rear passenger foot well.  there was about a litre.  Pretty rank so I guess it`s been there for a while.  Using a hose, I figured it's draining down around C-pillar weatherstripping (normal), but coming up under the weatherstripping at the very end, where there is a normal gap in the weatherstripping.




I also noticed there was some rust on the driver's side floor, under the pedals. It explains the rust stain on the carpet.


Obviously, the rust needs to be fixed before putting the carpet back on. I used a wire wheel and POR-15.

A friend at work loaned me a can of POR-15 and metal prep. I used a wire wheel on the floor, then degreased, then did the metal prep. It ate through the rust. What looked like surface rust ended up with a few pinholes after the metal prep, though the floor is really solid. No rust on the street side, and I can't punch through. I coated it with 2 coats of POR-15 so far. I'll put a 3rd and final coat before bed.

I also used Armor All Oxy Magic carpet & upholstery cleaner on my the grey cloth limited seats that were in my brother's caprice before. It worked really well. All the stains are gone. I sprayed one section at a time, and brushed it in with a soft toothbrush. Then I vacuumed it out with a wet/dry vac. On the more stubborn stains (mech. grease) I soaked a mr clean magic eraser in the fluid and just rubbed it gently, and on a few of them I put a few drops of Resolve. Seats look great, and smell nice too.

The seat project is now on hold until I located a cross-car (seat-to-seat) harness for a RM limited.

Sounds like some pretty good progress, I need to do all the wellnuts in my roof too, any tips?

Not really. I  thought they would just come out, but only 1 of them did.  I had to grind the top out of a 2nd one that looked bad.  I just resealed them all with roofing sealer.  Water wasn't leaking in with a hose.   Now that the POR 15 is dry, I need to see where it`s coming into the rear passenger footwell.

AFTER POR-15

laid down dynamat on the floor today.

Dam that is clean

Nice.. I like to believe my wagon has no leaks lol..

The finished product. Carpet is much cleaner!

Gorgeous ride,Jason.

I love those seats...and in cloth too. Awesome!

I'm surprised to see that folks like those seats...I have actually passed on purchasing cars with those...I had better try them out. I don't care for the aesthetics of them...much prefer the Standard Buick seat over either of the Limited styles.

Glad you got them installed Jason and that your happy with them. Did you keep your original seats or end up selling them?

I got the wagon back from the shop today. They installed the class 3 hitch I've had in the shed for 5 years, fixed the hoses for the wipers and installed my new spectra fuel pump and AC Delco fuel sender (along with new fuel sock, tank gasket and that metal part that goes around the sender). I wanted to keep the old sender to refurbish it, but the hoses are pretty crusty.

The car now starts very well. Ever since I've got it, it's taking a lot of priming to start, and even then would crank for a 3-5 seconds before starting. Not catastrophic, but not normal either. I recently changed the fuel pressure regulator hoping it would resolve the issue (I had one lying around) but no joy. I had been meaning to do the pump for almost a year, figuring the drainback valve in it was dead. wish I had done it earlier.

Big Wagon Guy wrote:

I'm surprised to see that folks like those seats...I have actually passed on purchasing cars with those...I had better try them out. I don't care for the aesthetics of them...much prefer the Standard Buick seat over either of the Limited styles.

Glad you got them installed Jason and that your happy with them. Did you keep your original seats or end up selling them?  

I shipped the passenger seat to Nick for Wagon Collector. I still have the driver's one but it's going in the dump this week. Definitely at least sit in a car with limited seats. I suspect you'll be converted.

This week's mod: GM block heater install. Definitely required where I'm going. Glad I kept that in the parts pile.

Also I guess I'll slap the "thin" OZ nova wheels on for the transit. No use in having them sit on the RMW unused for a few years as the tires will degrade. My rear tires on the caprice are winters with REALLY badly cracked sidewalls (yes, I pointed the cracks inwards). Don't really want to gamble on a 5000km trip. I've been trying to find decent 15" tires for the back for almost 2 years on craigslist/kijiji and nothing has come up. You can't even find a decent brand tall sidewall tire anymore in 15".

Most of the 15" tires I've been seeing that fit our cars are more of a pickup truck tire and have a more aggressive tread. I'm not really a fan of the tires on my wagon, traction isn't that great on dry pavement, braking could be better

yeah, I hear you. I'm puttin on the 8 (.5?) " wide OZ NOVAs that are on my RMW this week. They have Camaro take-off tires in 245/55R18 so they are 28.6" tall. I was on the fence about it, but the RMW is just going to sit in storage for the next several years so no point in having the tires just decay.

Also, the tall tires will work well with the 3.73s and Edge 3000 converter that Lynol just picked up for me (big thanks). Winter tires will be 27" though... good thing I can swap the tune in 10 minutes.

OZ novas with 245/55R18 are on.

Changed the power steering fluid, flushed the brakes, new air filter and shipped the roof cross bars to my new place. Should be ready for the 5200 km drive.

Ready for the trip. I coated the windshield with aquapel. I bought a dozen of them when rockauto was clearing them out for a buck. Similar to rain-X but seems to last much longer between applications. Like months longer.

It's summer time! no rain in the forecast,..

but now you've coated the windshield,........

are you coming through chicago and along the 401?

I think those wheels could pass for a factory option. Nice.

Beautiful!

phantom 309 wrote:

It's summer time!  no rain in the forecast,..

but now you've coated the windshield,........

are you coming through chicago and along the 401?

I think it's likely we're going to hit some thunder storms in the prairies.  Going through Chicago, but then up through Cleveland and New York state.

jasonlachapelle wrote:

 Going through Chicago, but then up through Cleveland and New York state.

cleveland is a bit south of chicago,. so i think you're going down,...er,...?

I thought the 2.56 gears would love the prairies but so far been averaging 20-21 mpg on my roadtrip. Averaging about 72-74 mph. Car is heavy and has no front airdam ever since I smoked a racoon. It's actually getting worse mileage than my old DCM with the 227 cam and 3.42s.

The TCC just hates staying locked-up. Gears will be replaced VERY shortly after my arrival.

do a quick reprogram on tcc enable disable,.

the tune has already been tweaked to try to optimize the 2.56 gears. I could probably tweak it a bit further but not sure how it will act in the hilly parts to come. I'll be happier just throwing 3.73s in there.

jasonlachapelle wrote:

the tune has already been tweaked to try to optimize the 2.56 gears.  I could probably tweak it a bit further but not sure how it will act in the hilly parts to come.  I'll be happier just throwing 3.73s in there.

driving through hilly terrain,.with a 2;56 car i leave it in third gear,. it stays locked up then and the rpms are very close to driving with 3:73's and od.

Same.

Damn that wagon looks good Jason, I use the Rain-X window cleaner and washer fluid, keeps it Rain-X'd and really good in the winter. Not surprised the 2.56 gears are hurting your mileage, they're meant for a 455 with a TH400 to get mileage.

Caprice failed the provincial inspection in Quebec due to:
a) daytime running lights. Province refuses to acknowledge car is exempt because it was imported from the US after it was 15 years old. Keep in mind my car has been plated in Qc w/o DRLs in 2013
b) front end (bad outer tie rods and centrelink). Had zero issues on the drive up, immediately after inspection car was shaking like crazy.
c) tires rubbing swaybar on max deflection turn. Who even goes max deflection on a turn ?

Fortunately I have BC plates until 30 Oct, and also moved my stash of parts with me. Jay also picked my brother's caprice wagon clean before it went to the crusher, so a few of those parts can live on. Car is getting the following done:

- 3.73 gears and Truetrac
- New Front control arms/spindle with 5/8" Balljoint
- New rotors and HAWK pads (from when they were like 10 bucks several years ago)
- New 700# coilsprings, new isolators
- ZQ8 bumpstops
- New koni shocks
- PPM front end kit (probably have had this on the shelf for 5 years)
- hotchkis swaybars
- SLP headers w/ AIR and EGR delete
- new plugs and wires since the stock ones are on there now
- Impala SS wheels with 235/55R17 pirelli winter tires
- block heater install

That's enough for this time. Later in the winter I'll transplant the 4L60e Joel built for my brother with the sonnax shift kit and upgraded parts, along with a new Edge 3000 TC Lynol and Don ferried to me at WF. 1.6 rockers and springs will be due as well.

The only part I had to buy were the spark plugs and an endlink kit for the front swaybar.

And new valvesprings for good measure. Going for the Edelbrock 5703. Didn't have them on hand but very inexpensive.

Will be throwing on the comp pro-magnum 1.6 rockers I've been hoarding for the last few years.

Thats quite an improvement list,for a ride you wanted to sell

Andebe wrote:

Thats quite an improvement list,for a ride you wanted to sell

Yup. No takers. Got the wife a 2010 Pontiac Vibe to drive while here, so I will drive the caprice into the ground during med school. May as well enjoy it while I do it.

The guy working on the car managed to break not one but both of the front ABS sensor. checked out rockauto and amazon.com... not too bad. Of course not available on Amazon.ca and most big chains in town (Napa, Carquest) can't even get them. One place had them for 200$ each but 4 days for shipping. Place I ended up getting them was $130 each plus 15% tax.

Lesson is, don't break them. Never heard of one breaking in the last 12 years so maybe it's just my luck.

From my experience they weld themselves into place. Very hard to remove once this happens.

Be careful if you do any work on a Fleetwood rear end. The rear sensors are specific 1993-1996. They are also side specific (left/right) as it has the 4 channel ABS / Traction control. Added bonus is the rear sensors are no longer manufactured.

My 1993 Fleetwood had both sides die. I had to get them from a California breaker. Not inexpensive for used ones with no guarantee. The old sensors welded themselves into the hole making removal impossible without cracking / destroying them. We put some anti-seize around them so they would hopefully come out next time they needed to be worked on.

There were a couple of after market manufactures but those have since ended production as well.

-D

YachtDriver wrote:

The old sensors welded themselves into the hole making removal impossible without cracking / destroying them. We put some anti-seize around them so they would hopefully come out next time they needed to be worked on.

Yeah, that's exactly what happened.  In the grand scheme of things they lasted 21 years, so it's not outrageous that they need to be replaced.  I ended up with blue streak brand product. 1 year warranty, paid with a CC that doubles the warranty. Thanks for the anti-seize tip. I'm hoping these last as long as the originals.

Left my valve-stem seals at home, so had to buy a set of fel-pros. Seems like as good a time as any to do them.

Looks like the diff had never been opened.  It still had the original GM gasket withOUT the oil passage holes.  I had done a fluid R&R last summer so it was still nice.  However, the cups had seen better days.  The axle isn't badly scored. Good enough that I won't put in the spare axle I have.  I've seen a lot worse.  Seems like a good time to do new seals and wheel bearings.  Not going to be playing around in there again anytime soon I hope.

STILL don't have the caprice back.  Almost done though.







Damn, even with adblock, photobucket is PAINFUL to use (as is ISSF). At least adblock makes this forum manageable.

Got the car back and passed the Quebec inspection. The only thing the guy looked at on the retest was the DRLs. I jumpered fuse 13 to fuse 41 and the ambers would go on with key on. He couldn't be bothered to check out the rest. Pulled the wire and got out.

Headed out to the alignment shop. I used the upgraded specs, and the guys spent 2 hours on it to get it right.

I got my Qc plates from the bureau and was pretty outraged I had to pay 108$ as an "acquisition tax on displacement." It started in Sept 2016. Keep in mind it costs $233 PER YEAR PLUS TAX because it is 95+ with a 5.7litre engine. It doesn't matter that the car was already registered in my name in BC, or in Quebec before that in 2013 for that matter. Their answer was essentially "you shouldn't have moved out of the province then."

Car runs great. I can't believe I waited this long to ditch the 2.56 peg-leg. Yes, that is exactly what I said last time, and the time before that. The 3.73 Truetrac combo is great. No driveshaft vibration either, so I'm quite pleased. With the new valvesprings and 1.6 rockers, the car is a LOT more pleasant to drive. I mostly drive in a very hilly town, so it's great. No mpg observations just yet.

The new front end (it was due), combined with the 700 lb/in springs and konis are great too.