from my personal experiences "back in the day" worked at a local dealer ship on weekends doing odd jobs and occasionally helped the detail guy put the stripes on the few billboard cars that shipped in new to the dealership. don't know if they all were shipped the same way ,but all the ones I helped install were shipped with the stripes rolled up in a card board tube in the trunk and installed at the dealership. I don't remember the detailer painting any of the housings . I do remember black 71 cuda vert white billboard ,we installed the black housing on the white billboard that was either late 1970 or early 1971.