1967 DeVille Convertible - We call it HULK

[35-709]

Something like this work?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-CADILLAC-CHROME-SCRIPT-LOGO-EMBLEM-6-INCH/192504944748?hash=item2cd230586c:g:x7sAAOSwiuxaySL6&vxp=mtr

[DaddyDeVille]

Ended bailing and ran for a set of billet industries valve covers. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/bsp-96124

Over all they look good, but I only have one installed (replaced the bad one) and still need to replace the other this weekend if I have time.  (Hey, its nice out and I would rather drive it than work on it)

On the other side, I finished restoring/ish my front ash tray.  Weird I know cause I don't smoke. 

[DaddyDeVille]

Oh and regards to cleaning it out.  The chrome buckets I just used some metal polish with a brass brush.  Its still a bit cruddy in their, but overall looks much better.  The areas without chrome are now kind of a dark metal color.

The rest, I simply disassembled and painted with some silver metallic paint from Home Depot.  I'm sure it wouldn't last if you smoked in the car, but for me it will work fine.  Long term, I want to put a small backup camera screen where the ash trays are now, but its going to take some more engineering to get that project sorted.

good!

any ideas on how to refresh the inside of the ashtray, as mine looks as nasty as yours?
I guess it was plated but rusted badly by now....

[DaddyDeVille]

There are ups and downs to owning an old car that is not really a full custom, but is not really stock either.  And of course, there is the fact that much of the stuff I'm fixing was contributed via the previous owner.

With the kids off to the first day of school, I decided to take the day off and spend it with the Hulk.  Evaluating the (#23 of 500 things that need to be adjusted, fixed, replaced or sorted) aka, horn not working.  My dad and I looked at this some time back and only found a single green wire going to 2 of the 3 horns.  (it appears the large one is missing)  Running out of time, it was suggested that we pull the pad off the steering wheel and chase it down.

I have a picture of my steering wheel with the pad off below, but if I was to start looking to solve this problem, start with the horn it self and make sure it works.  You can do this by jumping the horn and applying 12 volts directly to the leed.  if it goes off, time to go up stream 

In my case, i had a GREEN wire coming from the horn, but no realy.  Yet when looking at the wiring diagram in the book, there was suppose to be a red and black wire feeding a relay.  I also found no relay cause yeah...someone else had done something with it.

After looking for these red and black wires and finding them coming from the main brick/wiring harness, i decided to pull all the wire out so that i could chase this red and black wire.  After disconnecting the horn, left side headlights, left side parking lights, left side turn signals and left side corner lamps (#24 of things to figure out why it doesnt work), i pulled the wires from behind the fender.  When i got about half of the wire pulled back, a horn relay appeared! 

I still dont know where it is suppose to be mounted (PLEASE, IF ANYONE KNOWS, DO TELL), but after testing the relay, i confirmed it was bad.  Just so happened i had a 3 wire horn relay laying around.  Its not orignial, but it works for the time being.  In the mean time, i'm going to try to find one and figure out where it is suppose to be mounted.

Nice day off if i do say so

[DaddyDeVille]

The horn worked for a while.  I never checked the horn relay that I had laying around for what the draw it was rated for, but in any event; its gone now too.

The horn however will have to wait.  I shipped off my heater control valve to original air a couple weeks ago and its suppose to be back around early November which will be nice as I can have heat back in the car.  For now though it will have to wait too as I had also been fighting bad brakes.  Though someone had converted the front to disks using a disk conversion kit; they did not replace the master cylinder or the booster.  The MC was leaking into the booster and the booster would release all vacuum on a single blow.  In a nutshell, I had a 50 year old booster that should be thoroughly tested, a 15 year old MC that had failed and front disks that were designed in the 60s and installed in the 2000s.  So, now I have new brakes on order from CPP.

OOOH cant wait.....to do more work outside while its snowing or raining.

[DaddyDeVille]

October to March is a long time.  During this time, I returned the CCP products, invested a lot of time learning how brakes work and ordered a specific set of Wilwood brake products for the car.  At age 46, I should know this.  You get what you pay for.

Learnings
1) Dont ever buy from Classic Performance Products.  They dont design or manufacture their parts and they do not understand what they are selling.  Products are low cost manufactured and low quality and will require modification for bolt on kits.
2) There are folks out there (eg: brakepower.com) that understand what it takes to design a brake system.  Do some reading and figure out what it takes to stop a 4500lb car.
3) Get brake fluid pressure gauge from SSBC Brakes (you can buy it on Amizon if you like)  This is really the fastest way to understand what your brakes are doing from a pressure perspective.
4) Now that you know what it takes to stop your car, buy from a reputal supplier.  I can attest that Wilwood is that company.

The plan is now to replace the whole front circuit leaving the existing front rotors and rear drums in place.
New parts
A) dual diaphram booster
B) Wilwood tandom master cylinder (looks like fine jewelry)
C) Wilwood proportioning valve and bracket
D) new hardlines and stainless flex lines
E) Wilwood D52 2 piston calipers

Taking Friday off for tear down and install. 

[DeVille68]

Looks good! In my opinion stainless lines is probably overkill, but sure looks nice.

What was the reason you returned CPP? Fitment issues?

I don't have issues with my original drums, they bring the car to a stop. Even down twisty mountain roads. One has to drive carefully though. Not like a new car in any perspective. Yours is going to be like that I guess..

Best regards,
Nicolas

[35-709]

Agree, Wilwood is the big dog and the way to go.

[DaddyDeVille]

Looks good! In my opinion stainless lines is probably overkill, but sure looks nice.

What was the reason you returned CPP? Fitment issues?

CCP...  If I had a shit list for a company, these guys would be on it.

The previous owner had installed a disk brake kit and my guess is that the original drums probably worked better as the car could barely stop with disks up front. I bought a kit from CCP mostly cause I was looking for a turn key solution that I could install in a weekend and then go back to playing with the kids.  When I opened up the boxes there were a couple alarming issues.  1) the brake calipers which I had paid for the red ones had been put in a cheep card board box while they were still wet.  Even the CCP logo was smudged.  Then when looking at the booster, I found that the boosters bolt pattern was not the same as the Deville.  The 67 Deville has a 4 x 3-3/8 where may of the GM cars have an offset bolt pattern.  The booster they sell is just a general purpose GM setup.  So now I'm a little freaked out as I paid about $1400 after shipping.  I start looking at the interwebs and find all kinds of anti-CCP folks and many claims around problems returning products.  I then find my self looking at their support guides and find one stating that you need to paint the M/C prior to installation or it will rust.  The M/C that came with the kit was already assembled to the booster and the proportioning valve which means it all has to come apart.  Ok, I'm mechanically inclined so I start looking at the booster more carefully and realize that not only is the bolt pattern wrong, but the bolts are way to big and not long enough and in general will not fit in the car.  I tried to return it and of course, they were not interested.  I had to resolve to credit card services to get my money back.


After dealing with Wilwood and Jamco, those guys know their products.  I would use them again in a heart beat.  The Jamco booster simply worked and the Wilwood stuff is first class.  Not only that, if you need to lookup the dimensions or length of the piston in the M/C, they have it documented and published.  All in all, after buying from Wilwood and Jamco; I saved $600.

[DaddyDeVille]

Few pics of the completed project.  4500lb car stops like a dream now. 

[DaddyDeVille]

Like many of these boats, my instrument panel is pretty rusty.  I just located a nice replacement and time to re-install.  About a year ago, when I was attempting to remove the rusty instrument panel, i was having difficulty getting the speedometer cable removed along with the silly wave washer that holds it in.  While installing the replacement and then having to pull it back out, I grabbed the opportunity to photograph it.  I found that a 15mm open ended wrench can be simply pressed away from the cluster towards the window and that will push on the wave washer and disconnect the cable.  No bloody knuckels.

Hope this helps someone.

[DaddyDeVille]

While I'm on the topic of instrument clusters, the shop manual talks about the instrument connector and the "Key" facing up.  I think this is a bug in the book as there are many.  Also note that the far right and far left vertical edges are not the same, so the plug will only fit in one way.

The following shows the connector from the book and a map when looking at the connector pins as it should face when it connects with the cluster.  In addtion, I measured the voltage on each pin with the key on and with the key off (in bold).

Hope this helps someone.

[spolij]

Here is some thing might be useful Amazon $10 Seperates wires from plug. Terminal Remover Kit

[DaddyDeVille]

Going to order one of those now!!  Thanks

[DaddyDeVille]

A little late providing an update as the smoke rolled into the PNW and I had a need to put the car back in storage right away. Thankfully, in September; I had the chance to get the dashboard back together and get the speakers mounted under the dash.  Having working dashlights is amazing as well as its weird to think that the dash panel is black with white lettering and the light shows in from the sides to aluminate.