flewbyu

I am not a painter so I dont know if this is even possible but here goes.

You know how the painted stripes come out better if you clear coat them? Ya know, so you dont feel that raised bump with you hand over not doing it. (that besides the other beneifits of the clear coat).

My thought is this. Is it possible to use the vinyl stripes and clear coat on top of them? My thought is it would still smooth out that raised bump feeling at the stripe line and also would protect the stripes. Would'nt this be alot cheaper than painting and then clear coating the painted ones? Also in theory would'nt it look like a painted stripe in the end once you clear coat the vinyl?

This may not even be possible but maybe someone knows this who knows about paint, etc.

dom92880

I don't think this will answer your question, but let me give you some advice that was given to me about clear coat over my stripes. I recently had some paint chips come off the stripes while I was washing it. I took it to the dealer and they repainted them with no problems. Anyway, in the time between, I talked with my uncle who is a car dealer (not Ford though) and he said asking them to clearcoat over the stripes makes people think you were in an accident if you were to resell the car later. So. . .no clearcoat for me.

Stang Skeleton

Well, if you clear over vinyl stripes there will still be a raised surface but it wont be as sharp. (clearing over the vinyl and already cleared body could lead to some potential problems and wouldnt look great) The proper way to get rid of the raised surface is NOT to paint over the already painted surface and then clear it, instead the original clear should be stripped/sanded then repainted with stripes and then clear coated. This will leave you with a factory finished paintjob with no raised paint levels. depending on who does the work and what kind of material they use, you can get a really deep color with great quality material and work (much better than the economic ford factory clear).

flewbyu

Yeah, I guess that does sound about right. Good info.

RW06stang

How much do you think that will set me back.

jay00f4

That will cost you a small fortune. I would guess $3000. My father is a body shop manager and when I get my car I am having painted stripes then cleared over. The clear will hide the paint lines and it also makes the factory paint look so much deeper and nice with the extra clear on it. I am not worried about someone thinking it was wrecked. If there is no other apparent damage and they don't like my explanation don't buy my car. 90% of people buying cars don't know what the hell they are doing anyway. If someone knows enough to think you car was wrecked because of the clear, he will understand your explanation to why.

I had a low rider truck with custom scallops my dad's place did when I was 16. When they did it they put like 8 coats of clear on the cab to get rid of the paint lines from the scallops. They paint was so deep and awesome looking you could see a huge difference from the bed to the cab. So they had to clear the bed as many times to make it match and look the same.

GlennS

I had mine painted the process is as follows:

1. remove front and rear bumpers, spoiler
2. strip the clear coat from hood, roof, deck, bumpers, and spoiler
3. Mask stripes across car then line up masking on bumpers, etc..
4. lay down base coat then color
5. shoot the clear, wet sand
6. repeat step 5 until you have factor + specs with no bumps.

Actually, you will end up exceeding factory spec on clear by a factor of 2 before the bumps are gone. I got mine for $1,500 but the bid was low so it took about 1-month to get the car back. They look awesome painted from under the fron bumper to under the back bumper. spoiler is painted to bottom too.

GhostPony

It looks cheezy to paint stripes over your base color without clearcoating and wetsanding over the stripes.
The stripes look like an afterthought. They also will have no gloss compared to the rest of your paint.

Clearcoat over vinyl would be a big problem, don't think anyone would do that.

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wakebord99

How is it that people hate clearcoat over stripes? Doesn't anyone think about the long run when it comes to these things.. Think about a 10 yr old car that has never been waxed. Ya know how that looks dull and faded along with chips missing everywhere. Yeah.. that's the way your painted stripes will look in about a year w/out clearcoat. I want my final touches to last the life of the car.. not to touch them up every year.

Stang Skeleton

It completely depends. Depends on the shop, material, location etc. But itll run you anywhere from 1600 to 5000. You can probably get a pretty decent and properly done job for about 2k with the sanding and reclearing which would leave you with an unraised factory smooth surface.