83 Hurst Olds Paint Job Question

[oldsofb]

All,

As you may or may not know, I'm painting my 87 442 in the 83 H/O paint scheme. I'm hoping some H/O owners chime in on the measurement of the silver to black cut off.

Is the lower silver the same height up from the bottom as the 442? I would think so.

What I really need is the measurement on the wheel wells (preferably from lip to center of stripe decal). I want to avoid getting that wrong and having the transition show outside of the decal coverage.

Thanks in advance,

Hutch

 

[69hurstolds]

Are you going to use the H/O stripes themselves?

If so, go 3/4" to 1" from the edge of the wheel lip. The decal starts approximately 1/2" from the wheel lip. But it's not an exact science.

Mock it up first. Take either 3/4" or 1" wide blue masking tape, run it around and pretend it's the paint break line. Then mock up your wheel well decals around it and see how it goes. That will tell you for sure.

 

[oldsofb]

Are you going to use the H/O stripes themselves?

Yes. I think Phoenix Graphix are the only place that makes them now.

 

[69hurstolds]

And if'n I recall correctly, the outside the wheel wells got a tape line that started at the body break line and was 3/4" up from that break line where the two colors met. All they did was run 3/4" masking tape straight along the body break line, then add another row of maskng just above that 3/4" tape line to tape off the body color and painted everything lower body from there. I still can't recall exactly what they used around the wheel wells. Probably 3/4".

The factory was HORRIBLE on getting a straight paint break. They knew what they were doing and knew their tolerance for waviness, it appears. Still worked, but you could see the lines weren't always taped very straight under the decals.

TIP- do the wheel well decals first. Save the door piece for last. It'll be easier to line up to the quarter or front fender stripes.

I got a picture of my 84 "naked" when they "fixed" my 84's paint...lemme see if I can find it.

 

[69hurstolds]

Not great pics like I hoped. Just nekked sides.

 

[69hurstolds]

I just went out and measured. They used 3/4" all the way around. Yeah, the stripes start about 1/2" variable, give or take around the wheel well openings.

Theres about 1/4" or so up under the bottom edge of the stripes. Not a lot of leeway, although it does work. I think you'd be better off going with the 1" from body break line and the wheel well edge, it'll be just fine.

 

[oldsofb]

Thank you sir!!

I assume the body line is similar or the same to the 442's since both stripes ran from reflector to reflector. If so, I can copy the paint break that's already on my 442 and just add the wheel opening breaks.

Hutch

 

[69hurstolds]

Body lines are exactly the same, so if your break line is 3/4"- 1.0" up from that lower body break line, just do the wheel arches and you're done. It was a bit tighter on the 442 because of the stripe wasn't as wide as the H/O, but that still doesn't mean it's straight paint break lines. I can see on my 85 the paint line under the stripes it looks like a drunk monkey taped it off.

I'm assuming you DO know the silver was a different paint code on the 83 vs. the 442s, right? I mean, not sure how tight you're going to roll with the 83 paint scheme. You'll need code 16 instead of code 12. But, it's your choice, obviously.

 

[oldsofb]

Here's the chart I found and saved a while back. I'm going with all 83 H/O colors.

Hutch

 

[69hurstolds]