My 2005 GT was in a minor accident and it required the replacement of the rocker panel stripes on my car. The stripes that were on it were "Ford Racing" stripes, which proved challenging to find. I finally got them, but they didn't come with directions.

So the body shop put them on and aligned them with the angled "crease" in the door, so there was a consistent distance - resulting in them being higher at the rear of the car than the front. The general quality of the work from this shop has been poor (*sigh* so much for reviews) so I would not assume that's how they should be done.

I'm unsure, but I thought they were level before - even with the ground. Does anyone know the proper way to align these stripes - should they follow the door "crease" or be level to the bottom of the car? Thanks!

 

Sounds like yours are installed correctly. It would look very odd if you didn't follow the body lines on the car. If you want more validation, just google some pix of rocker stripes. Should be a ton of them or, go to some company's sites that sell stripes. They always have plenty of pix too.
BTW, mine are professionally installed just as you described.

 

So you're saying they are higher at the back than the front? That just seemed odd to me.

 

Well, if the CAR is higher in the back, yes. If the car is lower in the back, they would be lower. Mount the stripes to the car, not according to the ground.

 

I'm not trying to be difficult, but I'm unclear. Assume the car is level.

Just to re-cap, there are two potential ways here:
1. Level with the bottom of car. Essentially, parallel with the bottom plastic moulding along the bottom of the door
2. Level with the "crease" above them in the door - causing them to go upward toward the back of the car (car is level)

 

OK, I understand where you're coming from now. Your shop installed them correctly. What I'm hearing from you is that you don't remember how they were installed before and don't have any pix? Google up some pix and see how they are installed on other cars.