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Tech Editor's DeskProjects, papers, writings, thoughts, musings of our technical editor Joe Padavano. To begin with, he will be making threads and can approve posts to it if he wishes. This can be changed in the future if it does not work out well.
that car would look way better without the stripe.i can't understand doing this
Yeah. When these cars were new, I can't recall ever seeing one on the street that had the stripes. Now you can't find a 68 that DOESN'T have them, all applied incorrectly. They are not an esthetic success, even when correctly applied. It pains me to have to repaint them on my 68 W-30.
i have had 3 68 442s (in the 70s)and only one had the stripes.it blows my mind that olds didn't put the 442 #s in the same position for both applications.
I am amazed at the amount of cars out there by clueless owners with the incorrect stripes on them. They seem to pop up more and more on facebook by proud new owners.
I'm guessing because most of us know it makes it look worse than it is. I agree it still looks "off" but it looks more "off" to us because we know where it should be. In the end I think the correct version of that stripe treatment is one of the best patterns Oldsmobile put out.
Some misinformed moron saw the Scarlet 68 four speed survivor that sold for $49k earlier and somehow thought this one was of the same caliber. This should have been a $25k car.... Dumbass....
Last edited by allyolds68; Jan 14, 2018 at 11:21 AM.
Some misinformed moron saw the Scarlet 68 four speed survivor that sold for $49k earlier and somehow thought this one was of the same caliber. This should have been a $25k car.... Dumbass....
I go to a lot of auctions in general, not necessarily car auctions, and there are a lot of people who think that, just because I bought it at an auction, "I got a good deal". I have seen people pay more than list price for items without warrantees. It sucks to be them. I feel bad if I pay more than distress price for something, or melt weight price for gold or silver jewerly.
Personally, I like an original W-36 stripe on a '68 442. You would think an owner asking that price would had done their research before applying the non-original stripes in that fashion. That irks me almost as bad as '69 W30/W31 hood stripes on a standard '70 Cutlass/442 hood, 'skunk' stripes on the trunk of an Oldsmobile (excluding the Hurst & Pace cars), or a W-35 spoiler on a convertible.
I go to a lot of auctions in general, not necessarily car auctions, and there are a lot of people who think that, just because I bought it at an auction, "I got a good deal". I have seen people pay more than list price for items without warrantees. It sucks to be them. I feel bad if I pay more than distress price for something, or melt weight price for gold or silver jewerly.
It's all about "winning" and the "it's only a dollar more" mentality. This is why I don't waste my time bidding on ebay until the last few seconds. Prior to that you're just bumping the price up. As for overpaying at auctions, I've been at farm auctions where uninformed buyers pay more than the new price for a used item. Why? Doesn't everyone have Google on their phone?
The late, great Chris Witt had a chunk of 68 fender showing measurements.
Check these out. I can't take credit for these and I can't for the life of me remember the guys name who took a lot time doing this. It will dawn on me who did it and I will give them due credit. I know he was from CT. and was real active a while back but not so much lately. He would kill me if he saw this and not remember his name. ANYBODY? First name Jeff?
I finally remembered his name. It was Jeff Salinardi.
Last edited by 66-3X2 442; Jan 14, 2018 at 04:22 PM.
Personally, I like an original W-36 stripe on a '68 442. You would think an owner asking that price would had done their research before applying the non-original stripes in that fashion. That irks me almost as bad as '69 W30/W31 hood stripes on a standard '70 Cutlass/442 hood, 'skunk' stripes on the trunk of an Oldsmobile (excluding the Hurst & Pace cars), or a W-35 spoiler on a convertible.
Is this misalignment stripes is caused by an after market fender or the holes for the emblem is drilled in the wrong spot?
Cars without stripes had the holes for the 442 emblem punched farther forward on the fender. The cars that had the stripe had holes punched farther back to center the emblems and the stripe between the back edge of the fender and the wheel opening. That is why you see many 68 cars with the stripes out of wack (too far forward). the emblems aren't placed wrong it just means the car wasn't ordered with the stripe.
I actually assumed all the 68 442's came with them, there are so many. The white with black stripes done to factory spec looks much better than the first abortion car.
I actually assumed all the 68 442's came with them, there are so many. The white with black stripes done to factory spec looks much better than the first abortion car.
Nearly NONE of the 1968 442s came with them. Today you can't find a 68 that doesn't have them, usually in the wrong place. Same way that you can't find a 70-72 car that doesn't have a repro W25 hood and incorrect wide side stripes.
I feel the same way every time I see a '70-'73 Camaro with stripes painted runout style on the rear spoiler. What, you paid good money for that paint job, but didn't care enough to do it right?
Is this misalignment stripes is caused by an after market fender or the holes for the emblem is drilled in the wrong spot?
obvious mistake, what happens when you get Non-Olds people adding stuff uniformed..
the 442 numbers are in the original placement and they just added the stripes, because they thought it would look cool.
they missed the fact the the original stripe cars had the numbers moved back slightly to make the strip look correct (more centered) at the bottom of the fender..
Is this misalignment stripes is caused by an after market fender or the holes for the emblem is drilled in the wrong spot?
What didn't help is that about 15 years ago a company called either Phoenix Graphics or Stencils and Stripes (I can't remember which) started offering a vinyl stripe kit on EBay and they pictured the incorrect placement. Everyone started believing that was the "correct" placement
or you could just use the assembly manual drawing:
when Jeff made those measurements this drawing hadn’t surfaced. This drawing should be consistent with Jeff’s pictures but honestly I haven’t checked
Hi all. I wanted to point out that there does appear to be a slight discrepancy between Jeff's measurements and the assembly manual dimensions. The gap between the large center stripe and narrower outer stripes In Jeff's photos is 1/2" while the assembly manual shows 5/8" (.625). While I prefer the look of the narrower gap, I elected to go with what I think is the more factory correct 5/8" gap. Some pics below. I want to thank you guys for this incredibly valuable info. I can't tell you how many times I've referred to this site during my restoration!
