71 billboard stripes

Is there any way to tell if a Cuda originally had billboard stripes, other than the broadcast and fender tag? I know on some b-body cars, pieces of the stripe will be under the marker light housing. This car looks like it has original primer on the quarter, under the marker light. Were the housings installed when the cars were painted? If so, would the housings have paint on them that would have matched the stripe color (if it originally had billboards)? I haven't stripped the housings yet to see what's under the repaints. That you for your help.

I should have searched the archives first. It looks like there would have been remains of the stripe under my marker housing if stripes were originally installed, according to a previous thread.

Correct

If I remember correctly the side marker housings had different part numbers than non-billboard cars.

no, same part #,
but different then 1970 casting
just the 71s read "black" or "white"
and the billboard only cars would have been only painted black or white, not body color, unless the billboard matched the car color

billboards where not installed at assembly plant. they were shipped in the trunk of the car for the dealer to install to keep from getting damaged during shipping. as to the maker light housing would have been painted body color from the assembly plant. there is evidently no "correct way" to install stripes, all dealers were not constant. however, IMO , the marker light housing would remain body color and simply removed for installation of billboard and the housing would help hold the stripe in place. most likely you might find evidence of the stripe on the inside of the 1/4 panel where the opening may have been "x ed out" and folded over. you may check your inside door edge also. personally I would put the billboards on anyway, awesome look.

From what I recall on the subject, billboards were initially installed at the factory, hence the "black and white marker housings", then early into production, issues on the line regarding proper install and time allotment, plus dealer feedback from customers not wanting the stripes on the car led to them being shipped with the vehicle for dealer placement, dealers weren't concerned or knowing of the "correct" marker lite color/stripe coordination, so the original marker was re-installed whatever the body color was, hence the battle over some that proclaim their body colored non white/black side markers are original to their billboard equipped car...

I guess one would have to have been there on the assy line/dealer operation to have known for sure...

Uh-huh...

When these cars were new I think those were called 'Sport Stripes', not 'Billboards'.

not really have to be at factory, but I was 17 at the time and worked on weekends at local Plymouth dealer washing cars and had to body shop detail guy occasionally help install the stripe on cars when he needed assistance. couldn't tell you for sure about other dealers , but I really don't think that they singled our dealership out. I feel safe assuming that they were all shipped that way.

There is no set situation that can answer all this except a Chrysler Bulletin on or if the assembly was done inside the plant or outside the plant and when all this might of changed if the assembly changed. Many a 1971 E Body had things added to the vehicle when it was sold and a stripe (billboard) was one someone wanted put on or wanted taken off. The maker light assembly was to have the markings for either black or white billboards, did all Cudas get these marker light assemblies put on the car from the factory, maybe not.

So the poster needs to look at his marker light assembly and then ask previous owners about if it had billboards and ask them if they know any other owners before them and if any of them knows the original Dealer that sold the cars. He can ask each person if it had billboards and if the dealership remembers.

I bought this billboard 71 Hemicuda in 1986 in upstate NY, from the owner who bought it new on the dealership lot the next town over.
I visited the dealership several times in the 80's and they remembered the car well.
Talked to the selling salesman, showed him this picture ( original untouched paint, 33,000 miles in photo ) and he stated it was just as he remembered coming off the transport.... 'big ugly stripe and all' as he called it.
I'm with Mike on this one ( the Mike who states they were initially installed at the factory ).
I tend to believe more were installed at assembly than not.
This is a December 1970 built Hemicuda.
I also have a 71 340 billboard Cuda that I bought in 1976 from original owner who told me he he was called to the dealership the day it arrived and it had the billboard on, just the way he ordered it.
Anyone who has ever installed this stripe knows it is no treat doing so.
I could see a dealership employee having a fit trying to figure where to cut and overlap the stripe on the quarter panel unless instructions were sent explaining that.

In this case I would think the Monroney label/ window sticker is maybe the only way to confirm if it was installed at the factory. The Monroney label was mandated specifically for the purpose of having the purchaser know exactly what they were paying for so the dealer doesn't keep or exclude an item or items. Items like wheel covers or floor mats might be in the trunk but other than the '68 Road Runner decals not originally installed I can't see how a major graphic like billboard decals would be left up to 100's of different dealers to install. If the billboard decals were subject to shipping damage then wouldn't the painted quarter panel and door also need extra shipping protection? Doubt if originally ordered they were installed in any other place but the factory. Could see a dealer adding them for a customer or as added dealer bling.

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

Outboard view.

BR

FE5 all over the retainer nuts!

BR

Since we are on the subject of billboard stripes I have a question I would like to pose to someone that has inspected a car with such.

How were the stripes installed around the door handles? Does it look like the handles were installed or not before the stripe was applied?

The Chrysler engineering prints show a cutout for the handle with no notes on what to do. Also the over the counter NOS stripes I've seen have cutouts that look to big enough to go around the handle but I've never measured one myself.

Mike Afflerbach

Backside of retainers.

BR

Mike,

Stripes slightly under the handles.

Photo 1.

BR

Lower edge of handle.

Photo 2

BR

Bill,

Thanks for the pictures that's exactly what I was looking for. Looking at the picture it seems possible from new that the stripe may not have been under the handle at the top. Since the sun probably hit here the hardest it's also possible that it shrunk there more then everywhere else.

Mike Afflerbach