Hi all,
Just finished completely paying off my car and now I think I want to put some stripes on it. I was wondering if anyone has ever done this themself, or if there's a reason it costs like 2K at a shop. My dad has a paint gun he uses to paint tractors that I could use...any thoughts/suggestions?

Thanks!

 

you should look into vinyl stripes. if you paint them, they are permanent. vinyl is much cheaper as well. i wouldnt experiment with stripes on a $20k car.

 

^^^^im with him, go on americanmuscle.com and check out the vinyl stripes they have, lus if you get sick of em you can peel em offf

 

vinyl probably is your best bet, you can most likely find pre-cut stripes to fit your car.

 

I'll bet the painted on stripes include clearing the entire top surface of your car so that's not too bad.Ford doesn't use ANY extra paint,so having another layer of clear over the factory paint is a very good thing.The shop will also take off any "orange peel" in the finish and give you a paint job to be proud of.
I had my 04 repainted bumper to bumper,color and clear,for $3600 last year so the price quoted to you is about right.

As far as the vinyl stripes,,,,stickers are for little kids to play with.

 

anyone ever done any painting themselves?
I'd give the vinyls a try, even if stickers are for kids the price is right, but I was thinking about going with like a matte black or like 5% gloss black so the stripes wouldn't be super visible, but it looks like the vinyls are only gloss over at american muscle.

 

check out baltimorestreetmods.com i have always heard good things about them and they carry matte black.

 

how to the vinyls hold up in snow/harsh weather conditions? (unfortunately come december my car is going to get a little snowy)

 

Get the 3M vinyl ones.Vinyl's OK it's not for kids tons of muscle cars came factory with vinyl decals or stripes.

Just do them fat and close together.

 

I used to work at a graphics shop- there is literally every color in the rainbow available, you can also have printed vinyl, so you can have patterns, images, etc- anything you want. Matte, glossy, anything.

I would suggest you goto a local sign shop, and see what they would charge you, you can even get your own design made up.

I'm in Ontario, Canada, so we get tonnes of crap hot humid bone frozen cold, snow, sleet, lots of road salt. 3M stuff has stood the test of time on all the police vehicles, ambulances and fire trucks I have worked on. (I know of some that have lasted over 8 years, always parked outdoors, and still looks new)

Just make sure they guarantee their work, and also make sure they do a proper application. (premask, soap and water, squeegee application)

Off topic a bit, I have reflective panels in my trunk (I'll upload a photo if you wish) and I am going to get "stealth" reflective (black reflective, as my car is painted black) on the sides of my car, to replace the factory vinyl sticker.