I have toyed with this idea for a few years now, but after some research it sounds very doable for me. I have experience working with vinyl at work, our POP window signage is just a big vinyl sticker that we apply with glass cleaner or mild soapy water. Just like car stripe kits, the key is to keep the vinyl wet so it can be repositioned until straight and then the water between the vinyl and the glass (or in this case, paint) can be squeegeed out with a small plastic or foam squeegee.
Now another question. If I were to do this, what color stripes would look decent? I was thinking silver/grey, since my car is a mid tone metallic blue.
Final question is, would a vinyl stripe hold up very well on my paint? My clear coat on the roof is peeling, and I think stripes would help to deture viewers from the clear coat separation, as well as enhance the appearance of the car until I can afford to repaint it.
I think I would repair the clear coat first. No since in putting stripes on an ugly butt paint job. That's kind of like putting a chrome air cleaner on a bad carb. You still have a bad carb.
I think the silver stripes would look nice. I'm with Skratch on the clearcoat question. :)
I suppose I can wait until I repaint the car. It needs body work. Here and there, and rusted quarters repaired, and then the cowl vent straightened and some bondo to make it right.
The thing is, if I repaint the car it will probably be red since the metallic blue it is now, I have heard, is a pain to lay on the car correctly.
The blue metalic shouldn't be a problem. Like any metalic, you just have to spray it light and even to prevent the metalic from settleing and creating heavy spots. It may take a little longer to fix it right, now, but you will be much happier in the long run if you do.
Stripes take time to do if you use paint vs vinyl
I painted these stripes on my Pinto Converted wagon to Panel project--took me most of one day to set up stripes-mask-paint etc
stripes are metallic blue and charcoal
CAR STARTED AS A COUNTRY SQUIRE WAGON
(http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/tom2tones/PINTO1.jpg)
DID ALL THE BODY WORK AND FAB'D UP SOME METAL PANELS-WELDED THEM IN -CREATED PANEL BODY LINES
THEN PAINT
METALLIC SILVER
(http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/tom2tones/PINTO8.jpg)
THEN ADDED THE STRIPES ON HOOD AND OVER THE TOP
(http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/tom2tones/015.jpg)
(http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/tom2tones/016.jpg)
(http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/tom2tones/011.jpg)
(http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/tom2tones/014.jpg)
TAKES SOME TIME BUT I THINK IT MAKES THE SILVER MIST METALLIC PAINT STAND OUT THAT MUCH MORE AND IT BREAKS UP THE ONE SOLID COLOR..
LEFTY
You do know you can remove just the clear coat than repaint right....You do not have to repaint whole car....Today they even have paint strippers in a can that will only remove clear coat or the color coat....
Well when I do repaint, I have a lot of body work ahead of me. It already has had some body work done on it from when my oldest brother painted the car blue (the original yellow as the primer) in the late 90s.
I have door dings galore on both doors, the cowl is a nightmare that I hate to even THINK of right now, and I have some small patches of rust in the quarter panels that need to be cut out and new sheet metal welded in.
There is a dent on the roof as it rolls over to above the back side window on the passenger side (not sure how that happened, it's been there for as long as I can remember).
And the smallest of damage is the scrapes on the fenders just in front of the marker lights, the "through the paint" scratch behind the gasket, and chips in the paint on the rocker panels around the key holes and on the hood, and where the blue paint itself has bubbled and blistered open on the hood (the size of a dime) where you can see the original yellow paint.
My plan is to take the car out of commission for a month or two, sand the car through the clear coat, cut out the rust to weld in new panels, bondo repair the dents stone chipping and deep scratches, and rebuild the cowl body lines the best I can to make it flush with the hood again. Then finalize with a new coat of paint and clear coat, stripes as well if I can decide on something decent looking that doesn't look like a ricer, but more like a muscle car since this will have a small block V8 in it in the future.
What about something more simple for the time being?
I've been playing around in Microsoft Paint and here's what I came up with that my wife likes.
1) Sectioned "stripes"
2) Solid "strips"