Vinyl Stripes? Options

[stevegm]

I am considering adding stripes to my silver 914. Up the hood, and engine and trunk lid. It was recently painted (base coats/clear coat). Does anyone know a way I can put stripes on it without damaging the paint? So I could take them off later if I want.

[Tom_T]

Steve,

If you use pin stripe vinyl or paint & keep the car covered with a quality all weather cover, then the paint fade should be a non-issue. A good old school pin striper from the old days will know how to hand paint the stripes, & tell you how to remove them later without damaging the underlying paint (or do it for you). Anyone can do the vinyl pinstripes if they're careful - even you. Surface prep is the key before either method.

The other issue is the "PORSCHE" script side stripes, which are also around in some NOS old vinyl, as well as new repop fresh vinyl ones. I'd lean to the latter so you don't have cracking vinyl as soon as they're in the heat & sun for awhile. Same applies to surface prep, keeping it covered, & pro or self applied.

IMHO the hand painted old school pinstripes look better & won't gob-up with wax & polish at the edges, which sucks & is really hard to clean on little pin stripes. It happens on the Porsche side stripes, but at least they're wider/bigger areas of vinyl. I'd be concerned that the 7-year wrap material will start to look crappy about 5-6 years, as they do on the wrapped buses around here.

I've got some pix of the hand painted pinstripes on my 73, if you need some guidance on where to lay them out to look best. My guy was an old pro who'd done things for Barris & the other Hot Rod & Movie custom car guys, so he knew just where to put them & talked me thru what he was going to do. Just send me an email after the 26th & I'll send them to you.

I'd wait at least 6-9 months for the paint to fully cure out, cuz the new urethanes take longer to off-gas & cure, than did the acrylics/etc. of yore.

Cheers! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)
Tom
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