gc_caddy Posted November 7, 2006 Report Share Posted November 7, 2006 In my 94 STS, the cupholders are really shallow and won't hold a travel mug securely. Looking at the assembly, I'm thinking that if I were to cut out the bottoms of the cupholder, then the travel mug will slide in lower, still be held by the "arms" and be held more securely. A few minutes with a dremel should do it. Anyone tried this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill K Posted November 7, 2006 Report Share Posted November 7, 2006 You might want to pull out the cup holder and see whats under it. There may be a reason they are shallow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmarinov Posted November 7, 2006 Report Share Posted November 7, 2006 You might want to pull out the cup holder and see whats under it. There may be a reason they are shallow. Good point, Bill. My '94 ETC has both LH/RH seat warmers underneath the holder. That's the one thing that drives me nuts about my Caddy - they could've engineered that feature better (and did in later model years). Too many sharp corners where things go flying Good idea, tho! Mark <!--fonto:Arial--><span style="font-family:Arial"><!--/fonto-->2007 DTS Performance - 50K <!--fontc--></span><!--/fontc--> As a matter of fact, I <i>am</i> driving 70 MPH in a phone booth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gc_caddy Posted November 14, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2006 So I did end up cutting the bottom out of my cupholder. In stock form, it's pretty much useless anyways, so I had nothing to lose. You can see from the pictures that the best mug to use is a "stepped" design one, rather than a tapered one. It's still a bit wobbly, but much, much better than before. It took about 2 minutes with a coping saw to cut the bottom out, and then another 2 minutes with my Dremel tool to clean up the burrs. Stock form: Modified: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarrenJ Posted November 14, 2006 Report Share Posted November 14, 2006 I'm glad you posted the photos. My '95 Eldorado was similar to yours, but it had rubber flaps on either sides of the cup holders; it held them fast. Absent the photos I wouldn't have known what you were talking about. I don't have a great use for the cup holders, but one. I buy those "air fresheners" that come in tins like cat food. I peel off the lid, put one in the cup holder and then close it up. Very agreeable! I'm currently doing "Coronado Cherry." Regards, Warren There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved. - Ludwig von Mises Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmarinov Posted November 14, 2006 Report Share Posted November 14, 2006 I'm glad you posted the photos. My '95 Eldorado was similar to yours, but it had rubber flaps on either sides of the cup holders; it held them fast. Absent the photos I wouldn't have known what you were talking about. I don't have a great use for the cup holders, but one. I buy those "air fresheners" that come in tins like cat food. I peel off the lid, put one in the cup holder and then close it up. Very agreeable! I'm currently doing "Coronado Cherry." Regards, Warren Mmmmm, Coronado Cherry! They must've changed the cupholders from '95 on - mine ('94 ETC) are the same way as his. Good work, gc_caddy - I may have to do that on mine. While admiring your handywork, I noticed that your shifter has the same peeling problem that mine had where the black tape was starting to wear off next to the PRND321 display. I took the trim piece off and removed what black I could see by GENTLY rubbing it with soapy steel wool. IIRC, the black tape is rolled up and unwinds/winds as you shift so I just manually manipulated it whilst it was outside of the car. The end result is that it has a uniform finish and ended up looking somewhat like brushed aluminum. Hey, better than it was! Mark <!--fonto:Arial--><span style="font-family:Arial"><!--/fonto-->2007 DTS Performance - 50K <!--fontc--></span><!--/fontc--> As a matter of fact, I <i>am</i> driving 70 MPH in a phone booth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gc_caddy Posted November 14, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2006 I thought about doing something with the peeling paint problem. I'm thinking that a "Gun Bluing" kit may be a good option to actually stain the metal black (blue). Mmmmm, Coronado Cherry! They must've changed the cupholders from '95 on - mine ('94 ETC) are the same way as his. Good work, gc_caddy - I may have to do that on mine. While admiring your handywork, I noticed that your shifter has the same peeling problem that mine had where the black tape was starting to wear off next to the PRND321 display. I took the trim piece off and removed what black I could see by GENTLY rubbing it with soapy steel wool. IIRC, the black tape is rolled up and unwinds/winds as you shift so I just manually manipulated it whilst it was outside of the car. The end result is that it has a uniform finish and ended up looking somewhat like brushed aluminum. Hey, better than it was! Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epricedright Posted November 15, 2006 Report Share Posted November 15, 2006 Gun blueing requires you to put the part in an oven to cure, atleast the blueing I used did. Maybe that's not the case nowadays? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poobah Posted November 15, 2006 Report Share Posted November 15, 2006 I've always suspected that Cadillac assigned the task of designing the early to mid 90's Eldorado and Seville cup holder to a junior design engineer. He (or she) came up with a real whiz bang device but it just isn't at all practical. Even if the cups don't fall out of the cup holder, they're in the way of operating the car. My wife had a habit of accidently bumping the front panel of the holder when she was getting out of the car. That would always send the cup holders flying out of the arm rest. The other problem was that cutting the little trap door in the front of the arm rest weakened the very spot that needs to be strongest. As a result, an awfully lot of the plastic arm rest substructures in those cars are broken (try to find good one in a wercking yard sometime). I once considered replacing mine with a shaped piece of 4x6 that was upholstered to match. Fortunately, Cadillac improved the design in later years. Happiness is owning a Cadillac with no codes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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