New Caprice - Discussion forums

Hey, what’s up everybody? I am the new owner of a 2013. I was supposed to buy one from another member on here and had my plane tickets when the deal fell through. I ended up buying one from an auction in Washougal, Washington. I flew to Portland, Oregon, took an Uber to the auction house picked up the car and drove it home to San Antonio, Texas. With no spare and no jack, it was a risk. I am currently on the hunt for both. I also bought a tool box for possible roadside repairs. It made it home with zero issues. The car ran great. It was also a great way to see our beautiful country.
I already have a list of things to do and buy. What I wanted was a rear-wheel-drive V8 GM car. Ownership of these cars is not for everyone, but it is for me. I had been contemplating buying a Corvette, Camaro, SS, or a CTS-V. No regrets in the purchase of this vehicle. And yes, I would do it all over again, except take more time off from work and take longer getting back home.
It needs a rear seat and the seat belts. No one rides with me, so no rush on that. It has one hole on the roof, I will be welding that up soon. It also has this antenna with 4 coax cables coming from it. I plan on leaving as is. Should I remove it? The spotlight is staying, mainly for conversation. The car is not perfect, but it suits me. I see that there are a few Texans on the board. Maybe we can have a get together.
I am always going to do search and research before I ask a question. If I can’t find what I am looking for then I will ask the question.

Welcome! Looks like a good project and the first drive proves its solid.

Welcome! I love the color - wish that color were mine.

I went through the same drill of wanting a C5, Camaro, CTS-V.. I'm a little embarrassed to say I didn't know about the Caprice or SS until right before I bought my '13 9C3.

You should be able to get seats easily enough. If you want to replace the front buckets, you can buy a whole set (front and rear) on ebay for about a grand from a Pontiac G8 ('08 & '09 I believe). Aside from some minor wiring changes in the fronts, I believe they are bolt-ins.

You may want to think about addressing the DOD which is the ticking time bomb in these things. There are many things you can do but most decide to upgrade the camshaft with a DOD delete kit. You can disable it electronically as well. Lots of idle hours and miles are a bad omen for the lifters that control the DOD.

It must have been a blast driving it back. My brother wants one and we've come close to buying one in an auction for him. Depending on our schedules, we may do the fly-out, drive back deal as well.

Welcome!
John

Thanks for the welcome. The dod delete is getting done soon. The car has a lot of small flaws but I am okay with it. I just want it to be fun and dependable. And I like the look. I at least want to get the rear seats. It is too loud in the cabin without them. I do have HPTuners but I don't know what I am doing. The blue color was my preference also. It took me a while to find one.

While/when you have the back seat out, you may want to put down some sound deadening material like below. I'm in the same spot with the HPTuners. I have not plugged it in yet but I've already changed the rear end, so I have at least 2 things to do right away: rear end ratio and DOD. I'm kinda curious if there are sets of profiles. For example, you get traction control in one mode when you push the traction control button quickly. You get a second "mode" when you hold the button for 5 seconds. I wonder if those three separate conditions are three full configurations that you could play with. That would be very nice. In any case, if I get in soon, I'll pass along my "step by step".


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0751 ... UTF8&psc=1

I watch Goat Rope Garage on youtube. He has lots of good information. I think driveway engineer is the other guy.
That is the first I heard of that mode on the button.
secondskinaudio

Goat Rope Garage is awesome for learning about tuning!