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To clarify, it's mostly original paint at best. Those aren't the original side stripes, that much I know. I suspect it has been repainted once. What's on the car now is positioned more like the double stripe 1970 stripes. Too low for 71/72 cars. Plus that sweeping bend around the wheel wells just isn't factory.
Otherwise, I agree, it's a good starting point for a resto, depending on how far you want to spend. Or drive as is. It's still amazing how many bench seat 442s were out there.
General Question: I was under the impression that maybe very early 71 Cutlass/442s got the "smooth" fenders in regards to the crinkle zones. At some point in the 71 production run, they introduced crinkle zone bumps on the fenders. This one doesn't appear to have the bumps. The original fenders I took off of my 71 442 had the bumps. This car was built in March 71, which, because of the strike shortened year, would be akin to it being built in a typical normal production year the first week of January. Which may or may not be considered "early" for 1971. The "2" in the 442 is severely misaligned which partly makes me think the front driver fender isn't from the car originally.
Simply trying to assess how much of this car is original.
Regardless, it's still a decent deal as the car is complete, driveable, and the engine/trans are original to the car and already good to go. My own 71 442 was bittersweet with white top and stripes, but has a black/white bucket seat interior. It's tempting me.
That second car looks like it still has its original stripes. Plus it has that cool wide belt reveal molding. Note where the stripe turns the corners sharply around the wheel openings. On your car they have soft, flowing curves. No 70-72 442 that I'm aware of had flowing stripes like that from the factory. Obviously those stripes will be gone whenever it sees a repaint, but it didn't come that way.
Here's a repainted 71, and I think the stripes were put on a bit low here, more like the 1970 style double stripe, but this is the idea of how the stripe turns should look around the wheel well. I mean, believe whatever you like. I just know what I see from the pics.
When I repainted my bittersweet 71 it also had the original white stripes on it, so I made a template from it. Looked exactly like the 2nd car's stripes. And when repainting the center hood stripe on a 71 442 standard hood, you have to measure from the outside in as the stripe dimensions change slightly to wrap around the waterfall nose yet still have the correct width. The car in the pic below didn't measure correctly and oops, the nose of the stripe got a little thinner up front. Not a huge deal, but I notice details.
I love this bittersweet but we own 2 already.
On the topic of stripes. We also own an original paint 71 442 survivor. We've had this car close to 25 years and bough it from the 2nd owner that I met in the early 90's. The original stripes were not perfect. Here are links to some photos http://www.texas442.com/71442stripes/ http://www.texas442.com/sidestripes/
