Gentleman, please view the attached.

My FE5 71 340 Cuda Convertible is an original Billboard option car (as in "Sport Stripe", indicated on the window sticker, broadcast sheet and fender tag as V6W), and I am the second titled owner. I had posed this question to the original owner previously (He sadly passed away last year)regarding the installation of the stripes, and they were on the car when it arrived at the dealership (Karl Gould CP of Vestal, NY).

Notice that the lamp retainers are covered with red paint, yet there is no trace of red on the marker bezels at all.Zero.So the assembly sequence certainly went like this:

Vehicle comes down the line with empty donor bezels, or perhaps even NO bezels, secured in the body by the retainers. Since this is a Billboard car with stripes yet to be applied, the donor bezels are subsequently removed, stripes applied, and prepainted bezels (marked in the castings as such directly on the bezels, in either black or white) are then substituted, with the reflectors, and the small marker lamps, then added to complete the installation. At least in my case, this is how it was done.

Interestingly, there is a gentleman with a 383 convertible in my 71 registry that still owns the car from new, and the stripe package is still in a box in the trunk!!! So it seems that for whatever reason, the factory flip-flopped on this.



Bill Rolik

201-394-5533 Cellular

bremotorsports@verizon.net