OK since Joe brought up the W36 stripes how about some W30 stripes. Talk about a work of love to get these things correct. The stencils that are sold are of great help but we ended up tweaking all of them except the hood stencil. We had to tweak it over the wheel wells, and around the deck lid. I used measurements from original paint jobs to get these correct and not surprising many were different, especially the height of the stripes from the bottom of the car as well as the curve around the wheel wells. I'll post some pics, let me know what you all think - its too late to change them so all comments welcomed - by the way I am very happy with how they turned out

 

here is the car masked off for painting of the stripes

 

I'm glad you're happy with the way they turned out. The pattern and precise measurements for the hood stripes in contained in the Cutlass assembly manual for your model year.

Don't keep us in suspense now, rrriiipppp off that masking and lets see how your baby turned out.

 

Here are some stripes after the stripes were applied and before the clear coat. I elected to have them sand the stripes and then clear coat - some folks would have gone with the stripes over the clear coat to give the stripe a raised feeling like the originals and then apply another clear coat over it all.

The big challenge was the curve right after the W-30 emblem and before the front wheel well along with the curve on the quarter extensions, the stencil did not work well either place. We had another challenge as the shop threw away what was left of the original fenders so we had to measure and measure and test and test where the W-30 emblems went. The original fenders had the holes punched - should have kept the old fenders and dealt with the extra work to fix them up

 

Yep, we used that too!

 

here is the car in the paint booth drying after the first coat of clear - I'll add more pictures to my restoration thread. The most inconsistent obvious error that I usually see with these strips is the front fender stripe level. It goes up with the body line, many people keep it parallel to the ground. Of course we have all seen many variations from too thin of top line, too much space between stripes, thin line rapping all around the hood stripe, hood stripe going all the way to the back trim etc.

 

Steven,

Beautiful job.

While I'm whining about stripes, there are the folks who insist on painting W-30 stripes on non-W-cars...

 

Thanks Joe, that means a lot coming from you - its nice to be back on this forum as I finally have some time - I remember in the old days waiting for replies from you and the other experts in the early days of the list serve.

 

Very nice looking car. It should be a knockout when it's done. I'm guessing the interior and top are going to be white?

 

Thanks!! Yes, those pics to come soon.

 

While we're talking about W-30 stripes, I happened to pass a white 1970 "W-30" on the way to work this morning. I used quotes because the stripes were not exactly correct and the W-30 emblems were too far down from the 442 emblems (and not parallel). The car did have red inner fenders, but since the was on the road I obviously couldn't tell if they were real or repop.

 

Man was that alot of masking.The car looks great.

 

Nice job on the stripes and car. How long did you wait between base coat, stripes and clear.

 

not sure, it has been so long, I know between base and stripes it was days but may have only been a day or two between the stripes and the clear coat

 

badly painted stripes will get you a trophy at an OCA meet
i believe it's a requirement(insert smiley face here)

 

Thanks for the information. I have been told that the clear should be put on in 24 hours after the base coat. I would like to do the jambs and put the sheet metal on the car and then base and clear the rest but it take longer than 24hrs.

 

You're badd. You do live up to your name!

When OCA judging gets consistently consistent, I'm bidding on the airconditioning maintenance contract for Hell!

And just think, the factory was doing 60 or more cars an hour when they put the stripes on...

 

And my measurements of "original paint" W-30s proved that they were inconsistent at the factory as well. I only had access to a few cars and called a few others who had "original paint" and asked them to measure in a few spots, although close they were all off. The biggest difference was the height of the stripes from the bottom of the doors, this made some of the W-30 emblems end up in the middle of the stripe while others where near the top of the stripe. the distance of the curve from the wheel well was closer but also different and of course where the stripe ended was also off a 1/4 to 1/2 inch from car to car.

 

I'll ask the shop tomorrow for you. I know they did my jambs first as well but maybe they sanded them a bit and put another coat of base on but I doubt it.

 

Steve, depends on what paint you use....Spies Hecker and Standox has an endless open window! You can do your jambs and clear them 3 years later if you want. Trust me, I know.....

 

Thanks for the information. I use either PPG or Dupont ansd they have a window of 24 hours. I would think if you sanded it it would take more base and clear.

 

Yes it would!

 

Here is a picture from an original car

 

thanks for the pic, that is probably the highest I have seen the thick stripe which makes the W-30 emblem sit lower - makes sense that they would vary a bit - will add this to my collection of images so I can build up a reference database for others to use

 

Here are the rest of the pics:

 

can you measure from the bottom of the door to the bottom of the large stripe - be curious as to what the height from the bottom of the door is. Thanks

 

Steven

These are pictures from some time ago .........The car has been restored..... Maybe someone else has an original that they can measure....


Bob

 

The stripes on teh W-cars is what makes or breaks the car.There are SOOO many cars out there with poor stripes.I've had plenty of opportunities to buy some real nice cars,but when the stripes are wrong,it is a turn-off to me,as I would want to repaint the whole car.I have the same problem here,with my own cars.It takes someone with a special art & a boatload of patience to do the stripes correctly.
I have seen some 100% original cars with the stripe lower/higher than the other side.
Where are you located Steven? I wonder if your bodyman would want to stripe another car,or possibly paint the whole thing?

 

????

 

I'm right there with you, the W-30 stripes are gorgeous when done correctly and can be horrible when done wrong, but I bet it is more offensive to guys like us who know the stripes so well, as you state even the factory was off many times. I'm in the Chicago area and the guy who actually painted the stripes no longer works at the shop (that's how long it has been there) what made the most difference was spending the money on the stripe patern that the parts place sells and then tweaking it until it was perfect. I measured and re-measured and stood back and double checked and they even recut the pattern - they even made their own pattern for the curves on the trunk - I hate to think how much those stripes alone cost me, and now I'm hitting myself over the head for getting rid of decent 70 fendors and replacing them with the "perfectly new" (bs) 71/72 aftermarket fenders. UGH!!!