MN71W30

I went over to a friends house and looked at his 71 w30 and measured the stripes and they are 2.125 at their widest. I measured my car and they were 2.5 ". I need to know soon Thanks. The assembly manual does not list it.

MN71W30

My stripes were repainted directly over the originals as far as I could tell.

70Post

Look again at the assembly manual and find the page with the W30 stripe layout...I think it gives the top side stripe width (height) as well as the gap b/n that stripe and the wide side stripe.

I just measured the width (or height depending what you want to call it) of the wide bottom stripe......2.25" wide/tall.!!!!! NOTE!!!!---this is using a caliper...not a tape measure....so the caliper spans to the bottom and top edge of the stripe...IT DOESN'T follow the contours like you show using a tape measure. Get a cheap caliper and use it (Harbor Freight)....it will be A LOT MORE CONSISTENT THAN RELYING ON FOLLOWING BODY CONTOURS with a tape measure.

Also---the first pic you show has the stripes in the wrong place....or at leastthe bottom of the side "442" numbers are look TOO CLOSE to the top of the first stripe. I took another measurement and it looks like the BOTTOM EDGE of the side "442" numbers are about 10/32" above the top edge of the top (narrow) W30 side stripe.

These cars look terrible (IMO) if you err on the side of making the stripes too tall/thick...they end up looking like Hotwheels cars or another diecast with oversized stripes. For example...the top narrow stripe in your first pic looks way too wide/tall. Yours (second) pic look a lot closer/better.

I am taking measurements off an original paint 70 W30 in case you wonder about how "correct' they are. I took the measurements on the front fender where the "442" and "W30" side emblems are.

PLEASE!!----DO NOT GET IN A HURRY at this point. Take as long as it takes to get the stripes "right".

MN71W30

Thanks alot 70 post. I'll find a couple of my 442 emblems and have the ready for the layout. The W30 seemed to favor the bottom of the wide stripe on both cars. I'll double check the manual.
Thanks again

70Post

Don't let the location of the 442 emblems determine the side stripe placement. It should be the opposite....the side stripes are located on a certain part of the side of the car (traveling up and down). Place the emblems based on the stripes.

As I mentioned above about the width....you can run into the same problem with the placement of the stripes relative to the side of car...too low and it won't look right...too high and the same problem.

Of course the fenders were stamped for emblems prior to paint so you may say "what the heck is this guy talking about!!??". Well, MULTITUDES of these cars have had new or used replacement fenders installed over the years (collision damage, rusty fender replacement, etc, etc)...thus many have the emblems located in the wrong spot (ie someone finds a nice clean Cutlass fender to replace a missing 442 fender and puts the emblem holes int he "wrong" spot. You get the idea.

Yes--In my experience, many of the W30's (at least in 1970) tend to have the W30 emblem slightly off center with the "error" being slightly low in the wide side stripe. NOT REAL LOW but just SLIGHTLY....don't overdo it if you aren't working with the original fenders/emblem holes. You also can't go too wrong "correcting" the factory mistake by placing the emblem dead center (up and down) in the wide side stripe. Again, if it's a replacement fender that someone drilled the W30 holes in double check and don't let way-off emblem placement determine where the side stripe is put.

You should also pay attention to the stopping point of the side stripes at the front and rear sides of the car....there was a noticeable gap in the factory stripes there...they didn't run them all the way to the edge of the fenders/QPs.

Take your time.....this is the part of your hard work you (and everyone else) will see.

MN71W30

Thanks for the help,

One fender is original and has the original holes with the correct W30 spacing. I made a templet and transposed the holes to the other fender. I think they are very close. I can't understand why I wouldn't use the bottom edge of the 442 emblems as a reference point. That, and the W30 emblem placement within the stripe is where the focal point will be. I'll lay it out and see how it looks.
Thanks again.

70Post

What I mean by "not using the emblems as a reference point for the stripes" is that the stripes need to be located at a CERTAIN POINT of the body panels ELEVATION-WISE. If you use incorrectly drilled emblem holes (thus the emblems would be in a different spot vs originals) as a reference point to set up the stripes then it follows that the stripes will be in the wrong spot.

Remember, when you are looking at the cross sectional profile of the side body metal, IT IS A CURVE (with a slight peak). GO BACK AND LOOK AT THE ASSEMBLY MANUAL page with the W30 stripes. Look at the depiction of "Section C-C". This is what you see if you sliced a panel vertically and looked at the cut edge of the panel. See how the panel curves???

So---wrong emblem placement means wrong stripe placement relative to the vertical contours of the side panels.

If you have an original fender with original emblem holes, you should be good as you mentioned. I was making this point in the case that the fenders had been replaced, emblems re-drilled, etc as is the case on many of these cars now. At this point it never hurts to double and triple check for the reason I stated earlier.....this (the stripes) is what you will see and it's not anything that can easily be corrected if the stripes are laid down and painted wrong.

EDIT and ADD: I read your last post again...you apparently have a non-original fender on one side??? Thus...make sure the 442 emblems (not the W30 emblem) are in the same spot on that fender as your original. If so, then use the 442 emblems to locate your W30 emblem. If not, then move the 442 emblems to the right spot before proceeding. I know, I know---it doesn't matter as you "can't see both sides of the car at the same time". Doesn't matter....the stripes will be in the wrong spot on one side of the car relative to the vertical body curves.

MN71W30

I gotcha,
I have seen my share of wrong number placement also. Before I tossed the original fender that I didn't use I cut off the area with the holes and took detailed measurements. They are as close as possible to the factory locations.
We got the jams done today and looks like we'll be shooting it tomorrow.
Thanks again.
Dave

MN71W30

There is a 1971 Utube video with a road test of a 1971 W30 convertible. If you pause it at the right time you can see the W30 emblems are centered in the large stripe. It looks like the emblems could have been anywhere.

70Post

Possibly it's something that started in 1970 (the "low" placement) and was then caught and "corrected" b/n model years. Hard to know....or were the paint stripe guys just told to move the whole side stripe template up slightly to center the W-30 emblem?

Another factory mystery.