a while ago i had asked the question whether there was an option for striping and it was shot down saying only GSX had factory stripes. am i wrong or does it look like the lime green 71' GS convertable Skip is restoring has original stripes on it?: http://buickperformance.com/brough19a.jpg
If I not mistaken 71-72 GS's could have dealer installed X packages at verious levels to include Striping.
Well Leo you won't get any argument from me... and by looking at the condition of the stripes on the link I had posted they look some 33 years old, but the consensus so far is that the stripes were GX exclusive. o No:
Ok guys, Here is how the GSX packages were offered, and I hope this gets over to the FAQ section, so we can refer people to it. 70 (All or nothing) They were all Big Blocks and came with stripes, rear spoiler, grill & dash emblems, hood tach, front spoiler, rallye ride package, quick ratio Power steering, or manual steering, G60-15 Goodyears, 15x7 Chrome wheels, and sport mirrors. 71-72 (A-La-Carte) The basic GSX option included stripes, rear spoiler, grill & dash emblems and sport mirrors. (There is at least 1 example that did not include the mirrors.) The other options, such as hood tach, front spoiler, rallye ride package, G60-15 Goodyears, 15x7 Chrome wheels were all options that could be ordered seperately. Some even came with vinyl tops. Here are 2 examples; My 71 Stratomist Blue GSX has a deluxe black front bench with fold-down armrest interior, with an in-dash tach and gauges. (No hood tach.) It did come with G60-15 /chrome wheels, Stage 1 engine, automatic, and 342 posi, but may not have been ordered with a front spoiler. I also had a 71 350 GSX, with an in dash tach and Gauges, (no hood tach or front spoiler), front bench with armrest interior, standard 2 spoke steering wheel, standard ratio power steering, and no rally ride. So only GSX's came with the factory stripes, even the 71-72 varieties. Now there are supposedly a few cars out there with dealer added stripes. I have never seen any documentation, but even if I did, they would still not be GSX's. They would only be GS's with a Dealer installed stripe package. Duane
GSX with vinyl top? So correct me if I am wrong but did you say that there were even some GSX's with vinyl tops from the factory?
...and Vickie Jo Irwin's Platinum Mist 71 with a black top. She's even the original owner, ordered and bought it new in 1971. Vinyl tops were not recommended, but available in 71 and 72.
Smitter, Nick is right. I bought the green convertible at Skip's from the second owner. He told me that he'd added the stripes and rear wing. When we finish restoration it won't have the wing or stripes on it anymore. Not so much because I don't like the look, but it's not correct with the GSX stripes and I want it to be right.
Here's a pic of my car. It came with stripes, hood tach, front/rear spoiler, 14" rallye wheels, no rallye ride pack (front sway bar only), vinyl top, body side moldings, upper peak moldings, trunk lip molding, dash emblem, grill emblem, sport mirrors. The moldings make it pretty unique. It's a 455 car too. My dad bought it from an aquaintance when it was about six months old, so that's pretty close to original owner. The Limemist GSX (Canadian delivered car) owned by Bob Christo that was on display for the resto session Duane did does not have sport mirrors. I believe it only has a driver side mirror, if I am not mistaken. I assume that's the car you were referring to in your post, Duane.
Too bad Mike... I like the black stripes with the black top on that conv. If my car had a black color top, I'd have the stripes, but I have the "E" code, medium tan. I just can't see any color stripes looking good with that color top. o No:
My 72 'X was delivered with a standard 2 spoke wheel, no ralleye ride, and without a front spoiler and hood tach. Wish I'd known that before I spent $700 on a parts car in SLC just to get a black sport wheel! The original owner told me that the car never had a GSX/by Buick emblem on the grille, either. He showed me some pictures he took of the car when it was about a month old to prove this. Funny story...he used to have to go to work down a dirt road for about a mile and a half to get to the pavement and during this daily trek he would always hear a sharp metallic "clanging" coming from the LHS rear wheelhouse area....after about 6 months he got frustrated enough to investigate; turns out someone had thrown 4 (!) GS/by Buick front grille emblems down in front of the wheelhouse and there were just crashing around into each other. A few extras on the line that day?
Thats a funny story as I have a friend that worked at the ford plant here in St Louis, He said that when a manager made someone mad it was not uncommon for guys to take a piece of wire and hang several lug nuts or what ever they had . Screw the wire to the inside of the door and install the door panel . The owner would be mad and the manager well he got fired for poor quality control .
Another factory mistake... When I was working at Grease Monkey ,I had a regular customer with a 95 or 96 Z28 camaro,it was forest green. The stock location for the Z emblem is rear trim panel,right side. I noticed there was ANOTHER Z28 emblem on the left side UPSIDE DOWN..lmao it matched symmetrically but was silly..guy sed he got it new and never noticed it...crazy stuff happens ..fish
Lets see if any of you guys can help me out here. I want to find someone (if there is one) that has a 72 flameorange #'s matching GSX. I suppose I am trying to find out if all flameorange GSX's had the black stripe with the red outline stripe. Does anyone have an orange GSX with white interior? This is really what I want a pic of. Any help. Did they make a 72 flameorange GSX with white interior? If so what was the stripe color scheme? Any pics?
Andrew, The GSX paint striping scheme was the same for every GSX regardless of color, except for 2 very specific cars. Brad's GSX "Show Car" had black stripes with both a red and orange stripe outlining them. The other car with unique Stripes is his Black 71 GSX, it was delivered from the factory with only the red outline striping, then the Cortez Gold stripes were installed at the dealership before the car was delivered. The factory figured semi-gloss black stripes on a gloss black car would look stupid so they left them off. Bryan Brown had/has a 72 Orange GSX but I think it had a black interior. There are probably some pictures of it floating around here somewhere. Duane
Hopefully I could get a picture of his GSX. I have white interior with the orange car, and thinking about when I do striping what would it look like with black stripes outlined in red. I know the red goes with the orange, but black striping on an orange car with white interior? That does not sound right to me. So I really wonder if someone out there has a Flameorange GSX with white interior? And if so what the striping color scheme would be?
Strip your car man. Problem is some people don't accept every dealer "installed" option as original. Its need to come off the truck form the factory like that to fly. When in reality back in the day, if you had money. The dealer would do or change just about anything you wanted under his control. And lots of times it came like that on the truck from the factory. The dealer just ordered the car special. And sometimes the Dealer does his own thing. Long as its dealer installed before you "own" and drive the car off the lot. It flys as original in my book. If you con'ed the dodge/buick dealer into installing a HEMI in your GSX in 68. Its original. duck & cover.