[455HOGT37]

A few years ago someone was going to do some repops... Where are we with that project? I can't believe NO ONE is restoring a GT-37. Are they available anywhere?

[marvin bartz]

the tear drop stripes are the same as the tear drop stripes for the 70 judge

[marvin bartz]

the early production 71 gt37 had the same teardrop stripes as the 70 and 71 judge. the later ones had a lower stripe with gt37 painted on the fender, the earlier ones had a metal gt37 emblem on the fender behind the wheel well, below another emblem that was
"pontiac".

[hpp]

The eyebrow stripe on the T-37's and GT-37's are different than the Judge stripes.

[steve v]

hpp's right, the GT-37 stripes had a 2 color stripe & Judge stripes were 3 color.

[UPC-WU2]

I am staying out of this thread.

[GOATFF71]

The early GT-37 stripes are not the same as Judge stripes.

They only came in 2 color combo's red and white and red and black and Are very thin. They are eyebrow shaped similar to the Judge stripes but not as wide and with allot less material used in the actual stripe. This 2 color stripe was also used on 71 GTO's as the D98 stripe option.

There have been several people in the past few years that have worked on this project but none so far have been able to come up with a repop stripe. My GT-37 was bumped out of line to restore another car and I keep hoping by the time I get back to it the stripe will be available but no such luck yet.

T/A

[CraigGT37]

Cammer-6 was the person working on the stripes.Try PM'ing him to check the status.
Craig

[Judge273]

Tim,

What GT-37 did you buy? Details...pix...info!

[Bobsgt-37]

my 1970 1/2 GT-37 still as the original paint and original stripes and they are the same as the 1969 GTO Judge stripes, They are a three color strip, Black /White/Red the color of the car is #45 Palisade green.
The 1969 GTO Judge strip kit is available thru Year One, I am not sure about Performance Years as I have not looked yet I am not that far in the game yet.
1971 GT-37 stripes are a whole different story and I havent done a lot of research on them but they sure dont look nothing like 1971 GTO Judge stripes.
If one cold make a template out of tracing paper I am sure a local sign shop could duplicate. they have the equipment big enough they would just need CORRECT sizes and pattern to work with.
I am sure if someone who had a 71 with the original stripes on it took it to a sign shop they could do the work it would cost not sure how much but what you do is have a few sets made up then offer them forsale to others in need once you break even on the set-up charge from the sign shop the rest is proffit not to mention that the sign shop will store the pattern on a disk and if you ever go back and order more there would be no set-up fee, I used to work for a sign shop a long time ago but have a friend who still works there after all these years some of these vinyl sign machines are huge not only does the machine make the letters numbers or in this case stripes it also perforates the material in what ever size and shape is programed into the machine.
As i see it theres money to be made in reproducing the 71 GT-37 stripe but it takes money to make money.
JMHO

['ol Pinion head]

Bob, you're right in you haven't done a lot of research on the design of the early '71 Pontiac A-body D98 stripes. The subject of easily reproducing these stripes has been exhausted in earlier topics. This is no attack on you. Will repeat, these "71 D98 eyebrow" stripes are going to have to be reproduced through some form of screen process, similiar to how the '70 1/2 -72 T/A stripes were reproduced. The way the red & black (or red & white) is laid out on these stripes, they cannot be accurately reproduced with common digital sign shop equipment like what you are referring to. If they could have been done in this manner, the project would have been completed long time ago by yours truly & then the biggees, S & S & PG.

FWIW, in the early '90's, recognized the need & was the first to commercially reproduce the reflective '71 1/2 GT-37 -'72 LeMans D98 stripes. In that instance, obtaining NOS decals to have digitized took several years of scouring swapmeets, Hemmings, & parts dealer listings. The reflective nature of the original stripes did, initially, cause some transfer problems, we could not get a sharp edge on the front point of the fender stripe. Eventually solved this. During the years I reproduced & marketed these, the biggest problem became being able to keep a continual stock of the same EXACT color of 3M licensed reflective white-silver & blue material. These two colors of reflective material would eventually run out & nearly every time we sourced another roll, the color deviated a slight amount. As the 90's rolled on, was on the road more & more, & once Stencils & Stripes came out with their own version of these stripes, quit offering them.

[Bobsgt-37]

Originally Posted by 'ol Pinion head

Bob, you're right in you haven't done a lot of research on the design of the early '71 Pontiac A-body D98 stripes. The subject of easily reproducing these stripes has been exhausted in earlier topics. This is no attack on you. Will repeat, these "71 D98 eyebrow" stripes are going to have to be reproduced through some form of screen process, similiar to how the '70 1/2 -72 T/A stripes were reproduced. The way the red & black (or red & white) is laid out on these stripes, they cannot be accurately reproduced with common digital sign shop equipment like what you are referring to. If they could have been done in this manner, the project would have been completed long time ago by yours truly & then the biggees, S & S & PG.

FWIW, in the early '90's, recognized the need & was the first to commercially reproduce the reflective '71 1/2 GT-37 -'72 LeMans D98 stripes. In that instance, obtaining NOS decals to have digitized took several years of scouring swapmeets, Hemmings, & parts dealer listings. The reflective nature of the original stripes did, initially, cause some transfer problems, we could not get a sharp edge on the front point of the fender stripe. Eventually solved this. During the years I reproduced & marketed these, the biggest problem became being able to keep a continual stock of the same EXACT color of 3M licensed reflective white-silver & blue material. These two colors of reflective material would eventually run out & nearly every time we sourced another roll, the color deviated a slight amount. As the 90's rolled on, was on the road more & more, & once Stencils & Stripes came out with their own version of these stripes, quit offering them.

Its true I have not done alot of research on the 71 stripes as mine is a 1970 and there were far fewer of those made since it was a mid model year change and that is probably the reson for useing the 69 judge strips which are fairly easy to find the 71 stripes are very unique tho and good looking I will give you that, I am an industrial mechanic by trade but before that I was a journyman printer both in the flexo graphic trade and silk screen trade my father had 52 yrs experiance in the lithographic printing trade and as the saying goes in the printing trade there is not much that can not be dupicated 3m's reflective material is basicaly a reflective tape the reflective material is printed on the tape the variation in the reflectiveness that you mentioned or the color variation is due to the variation of the material that is being used to print the image on the base material or ink or it could be in the amount of ink that is being aloud to flow onto the base material at any rate if one used a densitometer when printing the reflective material onto the tape than you could hold the product stable at any rate if this stripe can not be reproduced by a sign shop than it would be a costly proceedure to reproduce them I dont think silk screen is the way to go tho flexo would probably be the best bet feed the material thru on a web roll feed printing press then die cut the finished product still not a cheep process.
I was born and raised in Detroit in the 70's my father worked for both Halm Press in michigan and Twiddle lithographers in Michigan they did most of the printing for the big three back in the 60's and 70's I think Halm press may still be in business it may pay to try and contact them as if it needed to be printed for the big three back then chances are one of them did it
You dont need to buy the reflective material from 3m, 3m is a wonderful brand and they do know there stuff just buy the blank material from them and print the reflective on that way you can hold quality and get a good densotometer so you can hold quality.
good luck I am sure its frustrating I know how I feel when I cant find something I need.

Keep in mind its realy not the expense of duplicating the strip its the set up cost as once the process is nailed down and printing plates are made or screens if one chose to go that route silk screen is to messy and inconsitant tho than it beocmes cheeper to produce set up fees are always high.
I hope something comes thru for you guys soon.
Good luck.

[455HOGT37]

Hey Roger,

Clean out your inbox!

[PB]

Originally Posted by Judge273

Tim,

What GT-37 did you buy? Details...pix...info!

He's had this one for years. It was a drag car. Solid. In excellent shape. Lucy Blue. I have a few pics. I'll post a teaser, don't know if he wants a pic posted or not. Don't think he'll care. It's a sweet car.

[GOATFF71]

Thanks Pat,

I almost hate to think or say how long Ive owned that car but what can I say other bigger cars got in its way It will get done though its high on my list of important things to do, Besides Im waiting for someone to figure this damn stripe out!

Now if I could just get that other car in my garage finished and out of the way.


Tim

[71 GOLSVERT]

Ok I am totally confused now, What strip goes on what car and what color goes on what color car. I have a 71 baby sh-t gold Lemans sport convertable with the T41 option. I would like to put the correct stripes on it if possible, Anything would help this ho hum boring color. No I can't afford to paint the car right now so I have to do the best I can. HELP me solve this mystery of the ? stripes.. Dano

['ol Pinion head]

A gold '71 GT-37 will take the red/black eyebrow stripes. So will non GT-37's equipped with D98 stripes built after the '71 1/2 GT-37's were introduced. I've pulled in & parted '71 Pontiac LeMans built in April & May of '71 that had the optional D98 eyebrow stripe.

The reflective "sword style" stripe was first used on '71 1/2 GT-37's. '71 1/2 GT-37's were built out of all 5 asm plants. Earliast body tags for '71 1/2 GT-37's will show 03C. Reflective front fender stripes without the GT-37 cutout were not introduced until the '72 production year.

[Judge273]

Tim and Pat, Love to see and hear more! Drag car? HO? Lucy GT-37 are very nice!

['ol Pinion head]

Back to subject of realistically producing the '71 "eyebrow" stripes.

The market for these, not only includes the restorers of whats left of the 2900 or so early style '71 GT-37's. Quite a few '71 GTO's, T41 equipped LeMans, & regular nose 2 door LeMans & T-37's also received the "eyebrow" stripes in '71. Even larger is the market where cars which never had these stripes originally will have them added just to look sporty. See this all the time with the reflective stripes. Wish S & S would pick up the ball on correctly reproducing the eyebrow stripes. Maybe we all need to call Ralph @ S & S?

[CraigGT37]

When the stripes first were talked about back in 2006,I was in contact with Cammer-6 on reproducing them.After gary started the project I recieved an email from P-G expressing their interest on undertaking the project of reproducing the stripes.Obviously the project has stalled.The quality of NOS stripes was lacking at best.They looked horrible once applied.
The last responce i recieved from gary:
"Craig I have once again reached an impass on these.
Bob said the tips are off but can tell me how to correct them.
I have copied NOS ones down to .001 of an inch so Im stumped.

Bob said he wouldget ahold of Dan and get back to me
its been months.
He said the difference was minor."
Those statements are from PM's dated may 2007.
Gary has tried but lack of good information has not been easy to get.There are not to many people out there with the original stripes to compare tracings or copies to verify the correctness of the reproductions.So all the stripe mfg's will run into the same problem. They copy NOS junk and we end up with crappy stripes or incorrect "guesses" at what they should be when they fix the problems.
Craig