Another Striping Question

[CaptB]

Based on my Google searches of the forum posts it seems that many have advised that stripes should be painted before color (would anyone disagree with that?)

The real question I had has to do with centering the stripes. I have driver and passenger roll bars. I would think that centering between the roll bars needs to occur with the body on so you have actual roll bar positions you can use to center.

Off the car the roll bar holes may not be exact enough to get the center of the body. So my question is what's been the practice of those with 2 roll bars in centering the stripes, body on with roll bars installed or body off? Or does it matter?

Thanks in advance,
Captain B

This is where I am at today:

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[CaptB]

I realize this is a pretty specialized question but can anyone help?

[JohnK]

Since nobody has chimed in I'll give you my (likely completely useless) input based on what Ken Pike did on my car. First, yes he did paint stripes before body color. Second, he did lay out stripes with the body off the car because I had the chassis back home when he did body work, stripe layout and paint. So it can definitely be done with the body off if you're Ken or the Jeffs and you've done hundreds of them. If it was me and I was trying to lay stripes out myself for the first time I'd definitely want the body on and roll bars in place, but then again I'd probably still screw it up. :p

[Ted G]

The only reason I've heard to do it the other way (body first) is if you have some special color in your stripes that need multiple coats. Ken did mine stripes first, but I know he did another guys body first because of the "special process" for those stripes.

Ted

[Jeff Kleiner]

Hey Captain!
Body on with the car all mocked up, in particular with the hood and trunk lid installed, adjusted and the gaps set. Put the license plate lamp on and mark it's center where it meets the trunk lid. Measure between the headlights and mark that center (It'll be 17 7/8" ;)). Put away the fancy lasers and go old school---pull a string all the way between those two points and that's your center line. You can slip the roll bar hoops in and check; they are usually pretty darn close but every once in a while I have to fudge the line just a little to equalize it. You're right though, the cutouts may not be equidistant from the bars on both sides so you can measure from them later for reference but don't use them as your initial guide when determining center. Once the centerline is determined I make reference marks so that I can come back to the same points with the body off; an 1/8" hole on the trunk lid's license plate light pad (gets covered by the lamp), at the front of the on the flange (gets covered by the trunk seal) at the front and rear flanges of the hood opening (get covered either by one of the rubber bumpers or "D" seal weatherstrip. I put one at the very front where the lip of the radiator opening turns under. Measure off of the two inside holes for the rollbars and make note so that you can get back to where you were. Once the stripe color is laid down the center---yes I do that first---you lay the hood and trunk lid into their openings and equalize their gaps all the way around then pull the string front to rear, checking to be sure that it is hitting your reference holes. You now have your centerline to begin laying out from. Easy peasy!

Here's the string on center:

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=188291&d=1691160591

And the stripe lines established:

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=188292&d=1691160619

Finally all masked:

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=188293&d=1691160643

One other thing; use this centerline to place the hood scoop...hopefully you haven't already tried to locate it by putting it in the center of the hood because the center of the hood is NOT on the centerline of the car.


Hope that helps. It's easier to do it than it is to sit here and type out how to do it!

Jeff

[DW66]

Jeff,
I know I told you this at LCS on Friday night but this community owes you a lot for giving us all your tricks of the trade. As you know my car is painted but I've learned a lot from reading your suggestions and tips to everyone else. Thanks. See you next year.

Dave

[Mike.Bray]

FWIW I did a lot of research into painting the stripes and found if you ask 10 different painters you'll get 10 different ways of doing it. But the general consensus in the Cobra community seems to be paint the stripes first and then mask them off and paint the rest of the car then clear coat everything. If nothing else it makes sense to me as you're not putting paint on top of paint.

I discussed this with the shop doing my car and they came back saying their painter didn't want to do it that way. I never got a clear answer as to why but I figure he's painted more cars than me so who am I to tell him how to do his job. He painted the entire car, applied a couple of coats of clear to seal it, and then laid down the stripes. All was right with the world.

But.... we had a unique situation and subsequent problem with my car. My basecoat is a Kandy from House of Color. The main difference between a kandy and a regular paint is standard paint has pigment and kandy has dye. With only a couple of coats of clear acting as a sealer, and a lot of this having been sanded off, we started seeing blue bleeding through the white stripes after about a week. We would have been fine if there had been more coats of clear or even have applied one of the HOK sealers. Of course all of this came about from the painter insisting on laying the stripes over the basecoat instead of separately.

Fortunately I'm dealing with a first class and very reputable shop so they are taking care of everything FOC. And they admitted their painter was wrong in this case. Obviously a unique situation with a kandy basecoat but I'm sticking to my guns, I would paint the stripes and then the rest of the car so there's no overlap.

[egchewy79]

FWIW I did a lot of research into painting the stripes and found if you ask 10 different painters you'll get 10 different ways of doing it. But the general consensus in the Cobra community seems to be paint the stripes first and then mask them off and paint the rest of the car then clear coat everything. If nothing else it makes sense to me as you're not putting paint on top of paint.

I discussed this with the shop doing my car and they came back saying their painter didn't want to do it that way. I never got a clear answer as to why but I figure he's painted more cars than me so who am I to tell him how to do his job. He painted the entire car, applied a couple of coats of clear to seal it, and then laid down the stripes. All was right with the world.

But.... we had a unique situation and subsequent problem with my car. My basecoat is a Kandy from House of Color. The main difference between a kandy and a regular paint is standard paint has pigment and kandy has dye. With only a couple of coats of clear acting as a sealer, and a lot of this having been sanded off, we started seeing blue bleeding through the white stripes after about a week. We would have been fine if there had been more coats of clear or even have applied one of the HOK sealers. Of course all of this came about from the painter insisting on laying the stripes over the basecoat instead of separately.

Fortunately I'm dealing with a first class and very reputable shop so they are taking care of everything FOC. And they admitted their painter was wrong in this case. Obviously a unique situation with a kandy basecoat but I'm sticking to my guns, I would paint the stripes and then the rest of the car so there's no overlap.

that stinks, mike. will they shoot another layer of the white or do they need to take the strip down to the kandy and then seal it and then respray the stripe? My understanding is that Kandy is really hard to touch up/match.

[j.miller]

In 20 years of just painting FFRs I have only had the stipes bisect both of the dual roll bar holes evenly ONCE. You HAVE to get the center of the trunk light, center of the scoop and center of the nose. If you chase after anything other then those three reference points you will have a wandering stripe. I paint stripe first. We paint stripes twice a month. A regular body shop painter might do it 5-10 times in his life and the fear of "not lining up" is overwhelming. I painted for 30 yrs before I specialized in FFRs and I understood the idea but it was still pulling teeth to get me to do it. Did it once and will never go back to painting them after painting the body. It's too easy and too clean also saves a lot of material and labor. ..Da Bat

[Mike.Bray]

that stinks, mike. will they shoot another layer of the white or do they need to take the strip down to the kandy and then seal it and then respray the stripe? My understanding is that Kandy is really hard to touch up/match.

Not taking any chances, striped it down to the silver basecoat.

[Duke66]

Another way of looking at it is that real race cars have stripes, numbers, sponsor decals, etc added on top of paint.
Depends on the look that you're after.

[CaptB]

Thanks for the replies, got it in primer this weekend.

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