I have 1968 442 convert. The car has one orginal fender. When looking up research on the stripe I notice two different places that the stripe was laid. One is close to the fender well, (like mine) and other is close to the edge of the fender. Which one is the right way? I even have a resto books and on the same pages show both ways. Whats going on???? Was the Lansing plant (my car came from) verse the other plants have different stapping patterns?

 

I'm suprised Joe P hasn't caut this one yet The one that is centered is correct the factory moved the numbers back towards the door when the stripe was added, with no stripe the numbers are closer to the wheelwell. The stripes you see that touch the wheelwell someone has added to a car that didn't come with the stripe.

 

Concur with Eric. The numbers for cars with the W36 stripe are further aft and lower than the numbers for cars without the stripe. On a lot of cars I've seen lately, people have added the W36 stripe without changing the location of the numbers, in which case the stripe runs out of fender on the forward end before it reaches the bottom of the fender. Some Olds parts places, such as Fusick, sell a "1968 442 Stripe Stencil Kit" that show where the numbers are supposed to go if you are converting to the W36 stripe. My brother had to do that with his '68 and it turned out pretty good (blue hardtop). Fortunately, mine already had it (white convertible). Both of our cars are from Lansing.
Randy C.

 

'68 442's came from the factory with one of two stripes...a rally stripe-W36- or a GT stripe -Y70- buyer's choice- and W30's came with the rally stripe...Rally stripe numbers down and back and GT stripe numbers ahead and up...I think the reason for the rally stripe position was due to the fact that the factory used a mask (PN 230534-5) to paint the stripe on and it was stiff and would not lay flat on the fender near the bottom in the forward position...

 

But you're all doing such a fine job!

Actually I think the reason was purely asthetic. If you look at the non-W36 cars, the emblems are visually centered between the top of the wheel opening and the front edge of the door. On the W36 cars, since the stripe is the visual draw and the emblems are "buried" in the stripe, having the stripe centered at the bottom was felt to be more aesthetically pleasing.

And yes, I AM the style police...

 

AKA the "Cop of Correctness"