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Definitely make sure you check those spring seats. GM's awful water-retaining design + GM powdercoat + road salt = almost certain failure after a while. And the cartridge design unfortunately allows one to get away with, at least for a while, not even taking the strut towers apart to inspect the seats properly. They're cheap parts to source (like $4 each side from Rockauto w/bearing), but when one of mine went it cost me $700 because it was in the middle of nowhere in northern Montana :(. BTW, welcome to the club! Lots of great people here, and most things on the W-bodies are idiot-proof fortunately. Stock brakes rather suck on the pre-1994 models. And the rear disc brakes are prone to seizing and aren't the best design either. Replacing ball joints can be a nasty affair as they're riveted on -- if you have the strut towers off the car for any reason (perhaps to inspect/change-out the spring seats), do give consideration to replacing the ball joints or at least grinding the rivets and replacing with good quality high-grade bolts. 3800's run forever -- that's the least of your worries with the car! Check to make sure the pads on the rear fiberglass leaf spring are intact, and if they're missing, repair/replace accordingly.

Buy a service manual specific to your vehicle. I usually get mine from eBay, used, at advantageous price.

Also, I am such a fucking idiot, I'm sorry. I had Cutlass Calais in my head. The Ciera is an A-body; they still have a somewhat active community over at A-body.net.