Before I painted my car I took measurements of the side and trunk pinstripes. Back in the day I would have laid them out myself. Now, I'm wondering if i would be better just getting the 1972 Cutlass/442 non W30 pinstripes and the W25 hood stripe stencils from Phoenix Graphix? Anyone have any experience with this kit? The only photo they have is a full car long shot and you can't see it the pinstripes are 2 or 3 lines in them. I'd like to see how they match the originals. The stencil kit I'm talking about is:
Phoenix Graphix 1972 Oldsmobile 442 W29 Stripes; W25 Air Induction Hood Stripe Kit

Thanks,
OLE442

 

I'm hoping someone has used this particular kit from them to paint the hood stripes and the side and decklid pinstripes and can do a few photos of their results. Up close photos of the pinstripe and the curved areas before the pinstripe goes over the wheel well. I can't tell from the PG photo where the stripe is 2 or 3 lines. 3 is correct, I believe.

 

No one with any experience with them and/or their 1972 stripe mask kits? The pictures on the sight are too far out to see details especially of the pinstripes!

 

I just finished using their striping kit to put the stripes on a 1970 W31, the hood went well relative to applying the stencil but the adhesive was left behind when I removed the stencil, it was very difficult to remove, so when I did the side stripes I was more careful using the wax and grease remover, I may of saturated the stencil to much and it may of broke down the adhesive because I did not have that issue with the side stripes. Now the side stripes is where I struggled, I could not get the side stripes to lay down correctly around the contours in the wheel lip area, the material that holds the stencil together is like a thick plastic and did not allow the stencil to mold around this area. I am no expert applying these things but I struggled.. I ended up cutting the stencil and only using the small strip and freehanding the larger stripe. Hope this information helps you.

 

I used Phoenix Graphix stencil kit for my 1970 442 good quality kit .But putting the kit on the car is a two person job and it is time consuming
Patience is your friend here.
Alain platinum 442 4spd factory A/C

 

Alain:
Any photos of when you were applying the stripe. My 1972 is a non-W30 so will have the side and trunk pinstriping. Your 442 was side pinstriping also....correct? I'm trying to get a photo of the side stripes up closer to the car so i can see if it is 2 or three stripes in the '72 kit! When I call, they're kind of vague?

OLE442

 

!972 will be 3 stripes go to major build and projects you can see my car
Alain platinum 442 4spd factory A/C

 

Well, the side pinstripe is three stripes…. two small stripes , one above and one below the 1/4 inch center stripe! The thin pinstripe on the trunk is on and looks OK except the stripe on the trunk is a 1/4 inch or so short on the left & right side of the trunk! I can fix that but shouldn't have to! I did eff up part of the right side of the trunk stripe! I’ll remove that side later and use striping tape to redo it! I’m thinking that using the tsp of Dawn soap in a gallon of water sprayed on with a spray mister bottle may be the way to go!!
The really hard part will be the side pinstripes! They go over the wheel opening and then go straight from
thereto the end of the panel. Getting all of that applied and still having the horizontal lines all run true down each side will be a challenge as I see it! A work in progress!

 

I suggest that you should have a friend help you with the side stripe stencil.Take your time
All stripes stop just before they get to the edge of door and trunk lid
Alain 1970 platinum 442 4spd factory A/C

 

Alain:
Well, looking at the rear area, to me it seems my stencil is lacking in length on both side. Not even near the side of the trunk lid IMO!


I looked at the photo of your latest restoration and your stencils appear to have gone all the way to the edge or did you add length? Any rate I can fix that but short is not good especially GM authorized.
I'm also looking at the W25 stripes and your setback of the stripes looks like what my stencil does so that cures one question. My final question for now is.....at the front of the stripes up by the scoop opening it appears the center painted area is 14 3/8 (approx.) inches wide and the way the stripe stencil lays at the back that the stripe gets skinnier. I think it should be the same width all the way back from the front?

Tomorrow, I'll go to the paint supplier and get some rolls of striping to lay out any parts I may screw up and I'm sure it will happen with the side pinstriping! Still not sure how to hang the stripes so the straight parts on the back of the front fender, the door and the front part of the rear quarter all at in a perfect straight line? I'm thinking laser level or some type of straight edge to help me line it all up! And maybe cut the stripe over the wheel openings and then applying the wheel opening stripes first and then all the straights!

OLE442

 

Hi ole442
you will need to adjust the corners of trunk stripe remember not to go all the way to the edge.
Some adjustment on the corners
Side stripes are demanding they will stop at the edge of door front and back.
Start point can be seen in post 203 and finishing point in tread 206 . In my restoration tread.
These photos came from and original unrestored 442
Alain 1970 platinum 442 4spd factory A/C

 

Thanks Alain! I just checked it out!

Also curious if anyone can give info to this W25 hoodstripe question that I have:

My final question for now is.....at the front of the stripes up by the scoop opening it appears the center painted area is 14 3/8 (approx.) inches wide and the way the stripe stencil lays at the back that the stripe gets skinnier. I think it should be the same width all the way back from the front?

 

Well, I applied them last night and they will be what they are. I still need to put thin line tape across the backs of both hood stripes. They look OK!

OLE442

 

Now, I'm taping the stencils around the wheel openings at the distance from the assembly manual. But when I get to the ends if I run them straight out from the wheel openings, they are not correct. I'm thinking about cutting the parts off after the wheel opening and then apply just the straight parts and blend them with thin line to get the proper angle. I'll then use either a 6-foot straight edge or a laser to make sure the pinstripe lines are straight from the back edge of the front fender, down the door and onto the front part of the rear quarter. I'm trying to do this in a way so I don't eff them up! And I thought I was going to do them free-style taping! LOL!

Any thoughts??

OLE442

 

These take forever! Drivers side left to do before paint! Basically have to reconstruct the points in front of and behind each wheel openings because the stencils are cut flat and the sides of the Cutlass are far from flat!

 

You are looking good.Remember not all the way to the bumper.
Alain 1970 platinum 442 4spd factory A/C

 

JMO, I personally wouldn't use those side stripe templates for my own car. But you gotta do what you gotta do. I know you're kinda stuck with the template restrictions, and your application of the templates are at least presentable and straight. So none of this is your fault. But to me they look like modified 1970 side stripes. They dip too low on the horizontal parts. The wrap around the wheel wells seems to look ok. I know, lots of people never believe me, but I don't care. I know what is and what was, so you do you. I'm just telling you what I have observed over the years. TBH, I know less about the W-30 stripes people love to use nowadays. 1970 stripes hugged the body break lines more than the 71/72s. Not that it's a bad thing, it's just a 1970 thing. The bottom of the wheel well stripes also start a tad higher as well. Since there was only 2 stripes, it kinda needed to be for it to be centered on the wheel lips.

My 71, which I would guess to be the same as 72 since I recall my 72 seemed similar, had its measurement from the fender 442 to the stripe start 5/8" below the bottom of the emblem. Yes. Only 5/8". 1970 stripes ran them all the way down to the body break line like your stencil shows. Additionally, the bottom of the stripe to the wheel well moldings constant spacing is 3/8" front and back around, which it appears to be the case here.

All I did was take the stripe measurements of my original painted car, then gave them to the body shop for the painter guy to use. I have them written down somewhere. Trying to find them again. He really ticked me off (when do they ever listen?) when he said he took the liberty to wrap the stripes at the doors/fenders because they flowed better. WTF? So I never fixed them, but it's always bugged me.

Again, JMO, your side stripe looks too low outside of the wheel wells. The front of your front fender wheel well stripe should almost straight across and doesn't really follow the body break line. The rear stripe sort of follows the body break line but not exactly. It does seem like it kicks up a little, but not real far. The ends where people have them kicked up confuses me. Stripes are also supposed to stop just a bit before the fender and door edges, as well as the bumper indentations at the stripe ends.

This one looks about as close as they come to factory layout, although there are a couple of questionable points.







I know it's not easy to find actual original paint cars because many people paint the W-30/31 stripes on their cars for some reason, and most people don't take pictures of crappy original paint a lot of times.

Again, this is the fault of the folks that make the templates. They THINK they know, but it's obvious they don't, or don't care. Unfortunately when enough cars are out there with these templated stripes, people start to normalize it. Sorry, it's not like the factory did it.

If I ever have to do stripes again, I'm probably going to be using this:

 

This topic is so much like asking for info/experiences about painting a car. I finally did what I wanted (just like i did years ago) and the car came out fine. There seems to be 6 (or more) different theories on painting!

Any rate, the 1972 Assembly Manual (see photo of the page) seems to show exactly how my stripe stencils were applied. Both ends slant up as the go towards the front & rear bumpers. IMO, the '72 Assembly manual would be damn near impossible to stripe especially when you try to lay out a consistent .06 paint stripe small stripe above and below the wider center stripe IMO! Joe posted in another thread about stripes a 1970 and a 1971 fender side by side. Not only do the number of stripes for each year's pinstripes change every year.....the height position also changes also! But, I believe mine are as close to the Assembly Manual as an old man can get. I'd even bet that between the different assembly plants and the different employees applying the stripe on an assembly line that there are many, many variations of each year's stripes. Even if they had some type of rigid template that they could swing in and use a Buegle type striper, there would still be variations. Again, I believe mine match the AM pretty well for an old man applying aftermarket stripes. And, if I hand laid (as I originally planned) them with striping tape, I couldn't do any better! JMO

 

As long as you're happy, that's all that matters. I'm not throwing rocks at your work. I think your stripe layout is the best you're going to get from that template, and your car will look good when done. You did a great job getting them aligned as best you can because of flat tape on curved surfaces. The aftermarket hardly ever gets it right, anyway. Again, you're stuck with their templates so your options are limited when using those. I'm simply disappointed as to what they're offering out in the aftermarket.

The overall PIM drawing doesn't necessarily display the actual layout. Likely it's the same drawing used in the 1970 manual. See the "note" at the bottom right of the page. "Dimensions shown above are for general reference only. For detailed stripe dimensioins, see layout 409218." The factory templates are what they were supposed to follow. The actual cars came out looking different than the PIM drawing. Not sure what they meant when they were talking about Note E which says "Was Decal". Maybe they were thinking about making decals for the stripes instead of painting them on? Who knows? They did use decals on the standard 72 442 hood.

The 71 PIM shows the same drawing. So it seems they simply copy and pasted the same drawing. Because I can guarantee you the actual cars weren't like the PIM drawing on this page. I'm betting during development there were likely at least 4 or 5, could be more, iterations of what the "new" stripes should look like until they picked the one that made it to production.



Ok, went and found the 1970 version. Just what I thought. It seems the 71 and 72 PIM simply copied and tweaked the same car drawing.

 

At least the 1970 had more useable information than my 1972 version. I also find the 1972 version of the assembly manual is even more vague about dimensions. The drawing of the W25 hood and the stripes even has what appears to me, the "A: section on the drawing that goes from the right side of the dr side scoop to the rt side of the passenger side scoop. A pretty amateurish mistake and how many mistakes are in these manuals??

At any rate, I have never aimed to have a 100% perfect car. I'm restoring it to how I might have driven it in 1972 if I could have afforded one of these beasts. I did buy a new Vega GT in 1972 (a Grumpy wannabe ..LOL!)! All I could afford for my first new car!! Any rate, mine will have CRAGAR SS's, be jacked up in the rear, have a Super Sun tach on the column, Sun oil pressure & water temp gauges on the dash with a Craig 8 track tape player hung below the dash.

BTW, I saw an entry here either yesterday or earlier today that I can't seem to find now but it showed a B&W photo of a 1972 442 with the same stripe location as mine is now. I think it was Motor Trend back in the road test days. Can't find it so it never happened.

 

Your car is going to look great no matter what, and likely nobody will ever notice your stripe position. Maybe you'll find that photo somewhere.

I briefly thought about early GM and magazine pictures and stuff but I recalled that the 71 442 they used in the full lineup brochure SUCKED. The wider than normal side stripes were placed lower like the 1970 cars, used the 1970 sport mirrors, and the grille was shallower and was painted more similar to what the 72 looked like. And the trumpets on the exhaust were barely sticking out. So you can't really depend on GM literature and pre-production models to help determine what production did 100% either. It just makes it tougher to find the right information.

Here appears to be an example of a neglected 72 442. It appears that the decals on the hood may have been weathered to the point that the owner removed them, I don't know. The first pic sems to show partial hood stripe on the passenger side. Maybe not. Or it could have been repainted somewhere along the line, who really knows 100%? But I'm guessing by the patina, this is more likely to be an original paint car.




It just makes me sad to see that the aftermarket doesn't seem to care that the 71/72 non-W side stripes were positioned a little differently than the 70 stripes, yet they continue to pump out the incorrect layouts in their templates.

 

Those stripes were about where the pinstripes were on my '72! My car is an original 47,700 mile car and my brother bought it from the original owner (family) in 1981 somewhere around Houston. It was built in Arlington, TX! Any rate I can't figure out why the pinstripes were hand painted? I could tell from the brush start/stop lines. I always thought the car had a total repaint but after stripping it, I found that the pass rear quarter had mostly been repainted and maybe 5 - 6 inches of the very nose of the W25 had a second coat of primer & paint! The rest of the car had I layer of primer and one of Viking Blue?? Could/would a person order with no pinstripes in '72. The scoop stripes were painted on. Not sure if after or factory? Those stripes couldn't have saved them too many $$ if ordered that way. Or maybe the dealer left them off to make it cheaper if they ordered it. But I would have left off the door guards and/or the power windows.....and, it came with AC?? Just weird but like you said, most won't know. A large percentage of the population doesn't even know what Oldsmobile, Cutlass or 442 is! LOL!

But WE do! And our pronouns are : Oldsmobile, Cutlass & 442

 

I called Phoenix Graphix today and they are going to send me another trunk pinstripe that is a half inch wider. It's surprising that some hadn't ordered a set for a coupe and complained that they were too short. Hope they get here soon since, other than this, I'm ready to spray them!

 

Well Phoenix Graphix sent me another trunk pinstripe stencil and cut it to the correct width for my car. I installed it and finished taping off and bagging the rest of the car Saturday and Sunday. I got up today and painted the stripes and here are a few photos. And yes, the stripes aren't as far up the car as a 72 but I like the look and it doesn't bother me. Not Barrett-Jackson quality but then I didn't pay 15 to 20 grand for a paint job either....LOL!









These were a PITA to install, and I have a few small boo boos! I can't imagine someone buying the actual vinyl decals and being able to install them correctly without having big issues.