Laying Out Stripes on a Coupe

[TTimmy]

I’m getting close to putting down some color on my coupe and considering stripes.

My concerns are as follows: I’ve never striped a car; concerned the added steps will complicate the actual paint phase; and unsure how to lay them out. I can always add vinyl later, but it won’t be the same.

Interested in your thoughts on this topic. The body is off the car.

[Smith is Retired]

This may not be helpful, but...

I had my Gen I professionally painted years ago, using Ferrari's version of British Racing Green (1998-2000 Ferrari #611) with a single yellow stripe about 10-inches wide in Giallo Ferrari Light Yellow (1990-1997 #102). The shop that did the work sprayed the yellow first, then masked off the stripe to the desired width before spraying the rest of the car green.

[Namrups]

When my painter and I decided to stripe the car the issue was how do we get the stripe to match where the hood meets the body. If thats off even a little it will look terrible. My solution was while the body was still on the car and the alignment of the hood and body was complete, I added a small hash mark on both the passenger and driver side of the car. that way when my painter went to lay out the stripe all he had to do was line up the hash marks and we were good to go. We painted the white first, then taped the stripe, then layed down the red. Worked great.






Scott

[egchewy79]

when taping/painting stripes, is there a window of time you need to do this in order to avoid adhesion issues w/ the body color? I know paints have a recoating time for proper adhesion as well as clears to make sure they are chemically bonded together.

[TTimmy]

When my painter and I decided to stripe the car the issue was how do we get the stripe to match where the hood meets the body. If thats off even a little it will look terrible.




Scott

Right! It's that three inch strip on the cowl that critical!

[Jeff Kleiner]

Pretty much what Scott said. You must have the nose and body mated to determine the centerline and then make reference marks on both so that you can get back to that point when they are separated.

Good luck!

Jeff