Dwisforme05

dont need to get em painted if u cant afford it, im happy with my vinyl superstripe from BSM. but say no to factory stripes.

wingman75

Well I think if you are going to have stripes go for it and do them from bumper to bumper. They just accentuate the cars lines and look so good!

$1000 for stripes? WOW! Buy your own and either do it your self or pay to have them installed and save $500.

mwl1960

I wouldsuggestpainted stripes... my painted stripes cost $900

ohnoesaz

If you have money then get them painted..... But remember that the vinyl ones, mine at least, look perfect after years and still shine after a car wash just as well as the car does. So vinyl is not THAT bad if you do get it.

zkiller

Well they forgot to paint the bumpers so no wonder it was so cheap! Did they clearcoat and wetsand for 900?
A good set of painted stripes will run you 1500-2500 because they have to remove the bumpers and spoiler, wet sand everything, paint the stripes, clear coat them a few times, more wet sand and then a good buffing. Finally they re-assemble the car. That is a lot of labor and requires much more time than slapping on vinyl stripes.

Painted stripes look best but if you do have to settle for vinyl, make sure you do the front and rear bumpers

mwl1960

didn't forget the bumpers... i think it looks better without the bumpers having stripes at least with a white body and black stripes because of the black front grill.

HDFINDER47

Factory - no. A good vinyl is OK if that's in your budget. Paint if you can afford it but shop around. I priced full painted stripes with pins for my vert and prices ranged from over $4000 to $800. I got a nice job with re-clear coating of all top surfaces and bumpers for $850 and it's so smooth you cannot feel the stripes at all.

05gtdriver

Not a fan of the factory optioned stripes[:'(]. They don't go all the way to the edges of the sheet-metal(they end about a1/4 of an inch at each end of the roof, the rear edge of the hood and the leading edge of the deck lid) this makes the stripes look incomplete and weird(being able to see body color between the stripes screws up the continuity of what the stripes' purpose is IMO). If you go with a company like BSM, you'll still be able to get them professionally installed for less than the factory option(about $400-500 for everything, bumper to bumper). For the naysayers that think striping the bumpers makes for awkward looking stripe angles, I guess you've never seen a actual '65-'66 GT350, huh? The stripes on those cars have different widths as the stripes go up and down the car to give an uninterrupted flow to the stripes(the stripes from BSM have similar width variances on the bumper stripes and have to be orientated properlyto make them look appropriate when installed). I went with vinyl because I wasn't sure if I wanted permanent stripes on my car, looks change through the years and I might want to give 'er a fresh look somewhere down the road, painted stripes would make it difficult to modify the looks.
Besides, I could always change what color stripes I have with the vinyl(try that with painted stripes).

GidyupGo

I agree. I think they look cheap and unfinished.

marcuskeeler

I'm not a fan of stripes at all, but that said, I have them on mine now LOL

I don't like the Ford stripes because they're unfinished as the guys have said, but also because they only do a limited number of [bold] colors. I wanted something so subtle in color to be almost ghost or shadow like on my Satin Silver and managed to find a local shop in which I picked out my colour from what looked like a million rolls of vinyl

Got them installed by them the other day at a cost of $350 Canadian! Oh, paying cashhelped <cough> tax included <cough>

I agree, painted stripes are must cooler but I've seen them with bad lines and poor corner masking as well as good jobs so it isn't a gimme that painted stripes are going to be superior if the paint shop drops the ball.

Let's not forget that with vinyls you can rip 'em off if you get tired with them