Vintage pics. More extended Z stripes!

[Rick H]

Here's a picture of an original paint Z/28 we sold recently. Was in a barn for many, many, many years. X33D80 built 08A car with flat hood. Azure Turquiose. Love the extended strips.



Rick

[DarrenX33]

Rick he is across the street from the ATV girl.

I am going to say that those were owner added. I was told that the previous owner of this car road raced it. It had sidepipes prior to my neighbor owning it. Also, a front end shot show that the stripes continue onto the grille.

About the blue car. My neighbor and his friend were cruising in it and his friend hit a guard rail. That will explain the grille color. I told my neighbor about the site hopefully he will chime in soon.

Here is a front end shot.

[DarrenX33]

[hvychev]

Darren I posted this pic a while back.

My father took this picture in the spring/summer of 1969 in Brookfield, IL You can clearly see the extended stripes on this car.

The interesting thing is that this car still has the original factory tires less the derby caps. Also note the shackles. I would doubt someone would extend the stripes before even swapping the rims and tires? Factory or not???

[55chevy]

So maybe that was a dealer thing???

[camarojoe]

Coulda been a dealer thing, i can almost guarantee it wasnt factory, i cant imagine filling out an order form and writing "Please extend the stripes to the bottom of the tailpanel in the back" and having GM do it...It IS odd how many pics exist of cars painted this way though...

[DarrenX33]

Frank how could I forget that pic. I think that one started the extended stripe controversy.

Well now what about the Carolina Blue Z that was recently on eBay. Wasn't that scheme claimed to be factory? I do agree seems more like a dealer thing but who knows. We need to find an original owner.

Did Jim Mattison have anything info on this topic?

[hvychev]

Kurt S from crg....any input?

[Supercar_Kid]

While interesting and worthy of further research for sure, I still feel pretty confident that the "extended stripes" we're seeing even in these vintage pics are all examples of either dealer or more likely owner added paintwork. It is odd that so many vintage pics seem to be popping of Z/28s painted like this as of late, but these photos may simply support a theory that it was a popular modification and that a lot of Z/28s were subject to this stripe treatment back in the day. Let's not forget the 6 taillight treatment that was so popular on mid-year Corvettes, immortalized in the words of Jan & Dean's "Dead Man's Curve." Check out this link for a vintage shot of some brand new '67s on Clippinger Chevrolet's lot complete with dealer added 6 tail light treatment. My point being, by the looks of this pic you'd think the 6 lights could have been a factory deal too, but they weren't, just a popular modification that some dealers would provide if the buyer demanded it. I also think that if the extended Z/28 stripes were any sort of a factory job, even by special request, there would have to be a stencil with a GM part # in some service manual or bulletin somewhere. Dealers would have been responsible for duplicating these stripes if a car was rearended, or needed the tailpan repainted for some reason or another. GM part numbered stencils exist for every other GM stripe application on a 69 Camaro, why not these? I guess until we find an unrestored original owner car with some paper, we'll just have to keep guessing.

[Kurt S]

I agree that these are not factory mods.
Remember, they were producing them at 1 a minute. There wasn't time nor detailed instructions to handle anything like that. But it obviously was a popular mod.
Note that both 69's in this post were flat hood cars, no surprise. Real cowl hood cars are relatively rare.