Due to my assignment in Okinawa, Japan, my Deville, which has been basically sitting for three years, is up and running again! The actual amount of time my sat at my mother's house was really about 3 years and 5 months, and most of that was sitting outside uncovered, so I was somewhat concerned about the condition the car would be in, but luckily, I am pleased (so far :2thumbs
. When my father passed away about a year ago, I came home to visit and had to buy a new battery because my mother, who, at her age, did a pretty good job of trying to keep it started every week, said that she ran down the battery trying to get it started when it wouldn't run. Turns out that the car was just out of gas, but I could not really see that until I put the new battery in to actually determine what the fuel level really was!:bang2: So, I knew that I had a somewhat good battery to come back to. Some of the things I did come back to were: tires showed a few cracks, which was to be expected since my mother said she did not feel comfortable driving it around, a small "nest" built inside one of the wheels (found that one after thinking the tires had separated since it had a horrible ride!) After I cleaned the nest off, car drove smooth again, and the biggest issue is the fact that my car was beat the hell up from one of Mississippi's past hail storms! She had warned me that the car had a few dents before I came home, but I was really not expecting to see the amount of damage that it actually endured! Here are a couple of shots (sorry about the lighting):
Had a couple of large hailstones that touched down like this one,
and this one,
but most were "normal" sized marks that were hard to photograph
I was pretty shocked at first to see all the leaves/scum/algae build-up on the car when I got back, but the nice wax job I gave it before I left really helped out when I powerwashed it all off and the car was still shiny! Testament to Cadillac's awesome paint and rustproofing as well since I did notice that some of those hail strikes did break the paint. Just interested to see how my insurance company is gonna handle the hail damage.
Alot of you may be asking how is it running, well, so far, I have driven it from Jackson, MS, to Montgomery, Ala and since I have been here, almost 3 weeks, I have not had any serious issues. I did not even change any of the fluids before making the trip since the fluids were actually still good before I left it at my mothers. I will give here a complete oil/coolant change once I move into a residence (living in a temporary lodging facility right now). Tires, were questionable, but they made it here and then some, however, I have a date tomorrow to change them out. My windshield wipers did start to act up, but I replaced the whole assembly with one from the salvage yard. In replacing them, I did see that alot of the leaves, pine needles and crud build up in the area of the wiper motor valley, so that may have been the cause for mine failing. I still have the P0447 code from that piece of crap fuel pump I put on 5 years ago! LOL. I will be putting on the Airtex one at first chance. Oh, yeah, she still leaks/seeps oil...did I mention there is absolutely no rust on my undercarriage? LOL.
Interior wise, everything is the same, no sun damage to speak of and surprisingly no mold! Feels really good to be driving her again, kinda like finding your old pair of favorite shoes! Also good to be back on the forum and seeing everyone again! I have pretty much been on lurker status only dropping a line a few times since I been gone, but now that I am back with my car, I got a feeling that I will be posting more often!
. When my father passed away about a year ago, I came home to visit and had to buy a new battery because my mother, who, at her age, did a pretty good job of trying to keep it started every week, said that she ran down the battery trying to get it started when it wouldn't run. Turns out that the car was just out of gas, but I could not really see that until I put the new battery in to actually determine what the fuel level really was!:bang2: So, I knew that I had a somewhat good battery to come back to. Some of the things I did come back to were: tires showed a few cracks, which was to be expected since my mother said she did not feel comfortable driving it around, a small "nest" built inside one of the wheels (found that one after thinking the tires had separated since it had a horrible ride!) After I cleaned the nest off, car drove smooth again, and the biggest issue is the fact that my car was beat the hell up from one of Mississippi's past hail storms! She had warned me that the car had a few dents before I came home, but I was really not expecting to see the amount of damage that it actually endured! Here are a couple of shots (sorry about the lighting):
Had a couple of large hailstones that touched down like this one,
and this one,
but most were "normal" sized marks that were hard to photograph
I was pretty shocked at first to see all the leaves/scum/algae build-up on the car when I got back, but the nice wax job I gave it before I left really helped out when I powerwashed it all off and the car was still shiny! Testament to Cadillac's awesome paint and rustproofing as well since I did notice that some of those hail strikes did break the paint. Just interested to see how my insurance company is gonna handle the hail damage.
Alot of you may be asking how is it running, well, so far, I have driven it from Jackson, MS, to Montgomery, Ala and since I have been here, almost 3 weeks, I have not had any serious issues. I did not even change any of the fluids before making the trip since the fluids were actually still good before I left it at my mothers. I will give here a complete oil/coolant change once I move into a residence (living in a temporary lodging facility right now). Tires, were questionable, but they made it here and then some, however, I have a date tomorrow to change them out. My windshield wipers did start to act up, but I replaced the whole assembly with one from the salvage yard. In replacing them, I did see that alot of the leaves, pine needles and crud build up in the area of the wiper motor valley, so that may have been the cause for mine failing. I still have the P0447 code from that piece of crap fuel pump I put on 5 years ago! LOL. I will be putting on the Airtex one at first chance. Oh, yeah, she still leaks/seeps oil...did I mention there is absolutely no rust on my undercarriage? LOL.
Interior wise, everything is the same, no sun damage to speak of and surprisingly no mold! Feels really good to be driving her again, kinda like finding your old pair of favorite shoes! Also good to be back on the forum and seeing everyone again! I have pretty much been on lurker status only dropping a line a few times since I been gone, but now that I am back with my car, I got a feeling that I will be posting more often!
