I want to put Hocky stick style stripes on my 69 Camaro and am pretty tight on cash. I haven't gotten any quotes but I'm thinking a body shop will want a kings ransom to paint them on. That leaves a Vinyl sticker kit for about $150. Has anyone used them? How do they look compared to paint? I know GM used stickers on the doors and paint on the fenders, but I'm not concerned about being 100% original.

Bottom line: Will all Vinyl strip kit look as good as all paint, and will I have problems with cracking or peeling in a year or so?

Many of the stripes you see on cars today are vinyl. Up close, paint will always look better when done right. A good vinyl stripe installed correctly will look good from a ways back - say 8 or 10 feet.

If you go with vinyl make sure the stripes are made from quality material like 3m automotive grade vinyl. They should last several years if installed correctly.

Which kit are you looking at? Ask for pictures of other customer's cars and see if you can get references or ask on message boards about the specific kit.

I see that our sponsor GroundUp has a kit:
http://www.ss396.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=camaro6769&Product_Code=MSS-3MB&Category_Code=STENCILSUPERSPORT

If you plan to use basecoat/clearcoat on the car then you should paint the stripes rather than use the sticker. On my first 69 Camaro, even though we used enamel, we still painted the stripes -- I just think it looks better that way

Click on my link and take a look at the stripes. They are painted on. I purchased the stencil kit. My painter applied the base coat, put the stencil on, painted the white base and then cleared the whole car. the extra step was no big deal and well worth the extra step. I was there when he did it. It just required covering the rest of the car when he shot the white. It turns out slick and it won't peel. The paint job is 5 years old and stilll like it just pulled out of the shop. The wife took first place in street machines at the show we attended last weekend.

Yup, that was the stripe kit I was looking at. Considering half of the stripe from the factory was Vinyl I don't see why all Vinyl can't look right. Another option is to get the stencil kit, apply it myself and airbrush it on. I'm fairly handy with an airbrush, but so far my experience has been limited to modeling (tanks). I wouldn't use a clear coat or anything.

The potential for problems is much higher with paint, as is the cost, but I think the results would be better if done correctly. Maybe with enough practice I can airbrush the stenciled hockey stripes myself.

Painting on top of the clearcoat is not too much different than using a quality vinyl. You still see the edge. When I eventually do mine, I plan on applying before clearcoat and using paint for the entire stripe.

One reason for paint may be that the vinyl needs to be heated and stretched when applied in order to follow the curves correctly. Remember, you're puting a flat peice of vinyl on a curved surface.

I'm thinking about striping my stang and I've been reading a lot on the subject. On a Shelby stripe, the difficult part is getting the stripes to stay parallel around the bumpers. You need to use a heatgun to stretch them. Apparently, they can be a real pain to install.

Anyhow, I would check with Ground Up. See what they say and ask them to send you the instructions.

jsabowabo,

I do decals as a part-time hobby. Normaly an automotive gade vinyl will have a guaranteed life of 8 years on a vertical surface. And I am sure if the car is garage-kept and out of the elements, the life span would be much longer!

however, I agree with the other posts, stripes painted on with a stencil are the best way to go!

I have vinyl hockey stripes on my 69 SS. They are Ok, they have been on the car since 1999 and they still look like new.

Good luck in your decision jsabowabo.

Daniel.

I just did a quick hockey stick stripe on a friends '69. no stencil,no vinyl,just a roll of 3M 1/4" blue fineline tape .Total time.....2.5 HRs. and painted it with krylon FUSION gloss white. Yup....a spray can. It looks great,has a very light edge,and cost about $13.00. I wouldnt believe it if i didnt do it ,but it really looks good, i mean REALLY GOOD and can be done in your driveway on a sunday afternoon. http://www.camaros.net/forums/images/icons/icon10.gif


Just another option.


bob

I'm going the stencil kit route in a couple of weeks or so. The kit is about $100.00 out of Rick's. I like the painted stripes over decals myself.

On my mustang I had the gt-350 decal kit runnin down the side and it looked pretty good. The only bad part is if you have to replace it you get a nice ghost outline if not replaced properly.