Painting stripes/pinstriping

[SpartanGA]

My son wants a center stripe or multiple center stripes (think Cobra). My thought after watching TV for years is to paint the entire car the stripe color, then tape off where we want stripes, then paint the car the body color. However, we want to sand the final coat (hard to do when there is tape) and what is the best 'tape' to get a good edge? I would imagine masking tape would be horrible leaving bleed marks.

Advice?

thx

[Jeff Piazza]

We've had decent results painting the main body color first, masking with masking tape, and then spraying the stripe color over. The resulting edge was quite good, with only small defects that were noticeable only under close inspection.

An alternative we've used for the pinstripe effect you're describing is to use colored vinyl (electrical) tape, rather than paint, to form the stripe. Cut off 8 or 9 inches and lay on wax paper on a flat surface, then use a razor knife and straightedge to trim to desired width. When applied, the tape has perceptible thickness, which some might find objectionable (we didn't). The ends of the tape are the most vulnerable, so we carried them around to the bottom of the car and applied glue there to secure them.

[BlackLotus]

We use pin striping tape from the auto store. They have many different thicknesses of tape and even have some that is double striped so you know your lines will be even distance the length of the stripes. We regularly sand between coats (2000 grit or finer, wet sand) without damaging the tape. We use a razor with very little pressure to drag along the length of the stripes before we remove the tape and we have had very good results.

[sporty]

I have done pin striping, vinyl tape is basically what it really is.

I have used it and made my own out of my vinyl used for my vinyl cutter.

Or I have just painted them on.


Masking them and or painting the stripes by can or by paint brush.

I always paint the car body first and let dry a few days. doing to soon, can leave a issue of finger print or masking tape stuck to the paint.

Once you mask our your lines or area, and then paint, I like to peel off right away, instead of waiting for full cure.

I also, try and not pull it off while the paint is still runny. so i like to wait 10 minutes then peel it off.

Why-

I have ran into the sides of the tape sticking or pulling up the paint I just place when it was fully dried.

so I do it a little sooner.

now then I wait for it to fully dry. I like to then wet sand and remove the high spots where the tape was.

Have to be carefull not to sand to much and go down to the primer or paint of the body.

This takes a bit of practice. but then when done, A good clear coat will smooth it all out and look really nice.

Sporty

[dna1990]

Not auto-show quality, but we used good 'painter's tape, it is green color from HD.

Painted the body first, full sanding/dry, etc. Mask off the stripes, paint, wait about 10 mins as Sporty says - then remove tape at an angle. This allowed our paint to 'level out' ever so much and blend better to the base coat.

When leaving the tape on for longer and the stripe dries - you tend to get a 'ridge' where the stripe paint is higher off the base.

We didn't, but I suspect you could then sand a final time before clear coat.

[SpartanGA]

so most of you painted the body its body color and then masked off the entire body leaving the stripe to be painted 2nd?

I thought the opposite route. paint the entire body the stripe color, then mask where I want the stripes to be, then paint the body.

[ah8tk]

It depends a lot on the base color and stripe color. If you are trying to paint a light color over a dark color it will take many coats to get the top paint not bleeding the under color through.

For example, we are building the 66 Batmobile this year and we are going to paint the red stripes first, then paint the black (I know the Batmobile highlights are orange, but red looks better to us). If we painted the red after the black it would take a lot of coats before you could see the lighter color over the black (if ever).

If you were doing the traditional Cobra colors (blue with white stripes) I would paint the white first. Just my opinion..

[millettbbc]

In some cases it looks awesome to have the car shiny and the stripe flat... i.e. a bright metalic blue with flat black stripes. In that case you could paint the car your base color and add black sticker paper (8.5 x 11 printable sheet) as the stripe. If you want a shiny stripe you could always make them with water slide decal paper and clear coat the whole car when finished.

[BlackLotus]

so most of you painted the body its body color and then masked off the entire body leaving the stripe to be painted 2nd?

I thought the opposite route. paint the entire body the stripe color, then mask where I want the stripes to be, then paint the body.

This is how we have always done it. Paint accent colors first, mask the stuff you want to show in that color, paint next color and repeat if needed.

[Rod Turnbull]

One more tip... after taping the car up, make your next coat of paint the same as the color already showing, then on the second coat change to the new color you will be working with. That way if the paint gets under the tape it will normally only be the first coat that seeps into the cracks which matches anyway... no more ugly fuzzy lines.

If you don't want to paint stripes they do sell them on a roll at most auto places. If you do paint and you're looking for a quality job use proper pinstriping tape like others have said... the difference is night and day.

[RonJ]

That last tip is a good one Ron! I always try to run my thumb over the tape before painting and haven't had many problems with seepage but I'm going to try that tip next time.....which might be tomorrow..ha..ha