Interior project on my 97 Seville

[rockfangd]

Hi All. 

So I have mentioned I found a nice donor car at my local pick and pull.

Well I bought nearly the entire interior for parts. 

So today I stripped my whole lower interior, swapped the front carpet (mine had fading)

what a job it was. Took me about 10 hours to do it all. The worst part was the center console. I swapped the front seats to the STS seats with the nice pleating.

I would have loved to have done the back seat as well but people always wreck the back seat looking for the hidden treasure. It is very rare to find one not demolished. Sad too as all seats were nearly mint.

I cleaned the seats and they look great. I am going to treat them tomorrow. I shampooed everything. Cleaned the floors, coated them. Everything.

The good.

Looks great, very thorough.

I fixed the blower for the backseat passengers as well. I swapped the resistor from the donor and it works now. Don't care for the sound of it but it works. In order to get to it the entire console looks to have to be taken apart. Not what I want to get into

The bad

Somehow in the removal process I managed to put a scratch in the face of the radio (grr was mint) That made me madder than anything.

In removing the shifter assembly There was a broken part that required me to replace the assembly. It was the spring clip with the roller that holds the shifter in each position. Thank god for the donor car. Good as new now.

Edit. I drove the car with the shifter replaced and sadly it has been broken for years. I knew immediately as I shifted out of park. It is tighter now in each gear. It has always been pretty loose but I always thought it was normal

and there was water in the carpet at the left front. I just barely see where surface rust was starting to develop. No idea here other than the fact that I left that window down about a inch for about 5 days, it rained pretty good during the 5 days. I checked the tubes from the moonroof and they were not plugged, surprisingly clean.

I will try and post a few pics tonight

I also replaced the battery and negative battery cables. I did not like the voltage drop with load. Was about 12.2 under full load at idle. Now starts better and is 12.8 under full load at idle.

I feel I am over compulsive, but I am pleased that a 22 year old car can still please me. I do not know anyone else personally that is as picky as I am. This was by far not too fun. 

Next job is the rear deck carpet. It is flaking

[Bruce Nunnally]

Sounds like it was a great project.

[BodybyFisher]

Terrific job!

I always thought the battery cables were a little under sized especially after they have oxidized over the years.  Thanks for confirming that thought.  Keep an eye on the starting it may kick over quicker.

[rockfangd]

I agree. Also never was a big fan of the stud on the engine for the main ground.

I did the same on the Deville, and my last Deville

[rockfangd]

So today was full of ups and downs.

The car was dead this morning, weird. I checked the connections and they seemed good and tight.

I charged it for awhile, and about 20 minutes later it was dead again. Grr

So I disconnected it and put my old one back in. I do not know if it is a issue with those darn GM side terminals or if the battery is defective.

I also noted my driver seat heater is not working. I found that when I changed the front seats I plugged 2 of the same plugs into the wrong plugs. Grr Was late when I did it. I pray I didn't mess up anything. The 2 plugs were the seat heater main, and the seat back lumbar memory??

Update. Everything works great. These seats heat very quickly. I had to wait for it to cool down outside for me to try them.

The seats feel even more comfortable than my original seats. I wonder if there was any other difference between the sls and sts seats other than the pleating 

I found it while standing on my head looking under the seat. I should have caught it before the install. It is too hot outside to test it. I know the passenger side works though.

I opted to remove the cellular phone from the console and install the compartment from the donor. So  I will have more storage space. The phone takes up the entire compartment.

Below are the pics of the broken part of the shifter

 

[BodybyFisher]

Off topic but do you know what causes the shifter button not to be able to be pushed in order to take it out of park?  Is there an adjustment? I have an eldorado and seville with that problem now

[rockfangd]

I do believe that is the grey cable at the right side. I am going to research it a little bit though.

There may be a few possible issues here. Try it with the key turned forward but not on. If the issue does not occur then it has to do with the brake interlock.

If the issue does still occur I would look at the shifter itself