Part 31: Cadillac Fleetwood


The Fleetwood Metal Body company was an automobile coachbuilder formed on April 1, 1909.  Fleetwood produced bespoke bodies on chassis from Bentley, Cadillac, Daniels, Duesenberg, Fiat, Isotta Fraschini, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Packard, Pierce-Arrow, Rolls-Royce, SGV, and Stutz.  The company name was derived from Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, where the company was established.  Fleetwood, Pennsylvania was named after the coastal English town of Fleetwood in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, just a few miles up the coast from Blackpool.

Fisher Body Company, a division of General Motors, purchased Fleetwood Metal Body in September, 1925.  After the purchase by Fisher Body, Fleetwood produced car bodies exclusively for Cadillac.  Cadillac continued to use the Fleetwood name all the way through 1996 when GM discontinued the last of its rear-drive, body-on-frame passenger cars.  These last Fleetwoods shared a chassis with the Buick Roadmaster and the Chevrolet Caprice and Impala SS.

The largest and grandest of Cadillac sedans may only have an indirect connection to a small northern English town, but it's still a connection, regardless.  And this little seaside hamlet is perhaps the very last place I would look for a massive, 18-foot-long, rolling slab of Americana like a Cadillac Fleetwood.  Then again, one can never be certain.  I won't rule out the possibility there might be some peculiar local freak residing somewhere near the banks of the River Wyre, cruising the streets of his Lancashire village in his ridiculous aging Cadillac.  I'm imagining a sort of self-styled council estate Elvis, Brylcreem pompadour and all, with his Bettie Page look-alike girlfriend in the passenger seat.  That's the wonderful thing about England and, for that matter, Britain as a whole.  For whatever reason, that green and pleasant isle produces the world's greatest breed of oddball eccentrics!

L4NDO!!!!!

'Least you got it all set!

Tried the negative and positive wires from the dashcam power cord- sub still stayed on.

The instructions for the "auto power on" button were counter-intuitive. I had to turn it off. Works perfectly now.
And yes, I've been messing with it this entire time since original post....
(sigh)

Nice to see some competition.

Norris with his first win! 

Quote from: giant_mtb on May 05, 2024, 03:55:00 PMI've always had problems with auto on/off on subs not working properly.  I always just leave my subs on, but that's indoors where they are plugged in, so no big deal.

My guess would be connect it to the positive of the dash cam, but not entirely sure.  Either might work, as the sub is probably just looking for a change/spike in the current to trigger the switch.

If it were me, I'd wire in an in-line on/off switch that I control myself...though that might be kind of annoying in your DD, might forget sometimes, etc.

TL;DR, I'm not of much help.  Try it, see what happens.

LOL I'm very much of the same mindset- wife may or may not like manual on/off switch, she drives Mav to work most days. (I drive when we're together, or if it's definitely going to rain she or I will take minivan (instead of me driving Miata).

I've always had problems with auto on/off on subs not working properly.  I always just leave my subs on, but that's indoors where they are plugged in, so no big deal.

My guess would be connect it to the positive of the dash cam, but not entirely sure.  Either might work, as the sub is probably just looking for a change/spike in the current to trigger the switch.

If it were me, I'd wire in an in-line on/off switch that I control myself...though that might be kind of annoying in your DD, might forget sometimes, etc.

TL;DR, I'm not of much help.  Try it, see what happens.

Bought a cheap sub for our Mav (which was supposed to have the upgraded stereo with extra speakers and sub but dealer messed up the 22-23 transition).

I have it all wired up and working but the high-gain inputs (tapped front speaker wires) is supposed to trigger it turning on, but it never turns off when the stereo turns off.

I have a dashcam wired to back window, I could splice that wire for the blue wire "input signal" for the sub. But would I connect to the positive or negative of the dashcam?...

Yes forgive my cheap engineering- I used the existing bracket behind the back seat with the cheap ($150) sub. Sounds pretty good but I don't want the battery dead from the sub always staying on....

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