After 3.5 days of hell, new racing stripes are finally on!

AlloyGT07

AlloyGT07

Well-Known Member
#1
#1
I was off this whole week so I was able to replace my old racing stripes. I had no idea it would be such a nightmare and that replacing them would take me 3.5 days. The worst part was removing the old stripes. I tried using a heat gun but that did nothing and the stripes kept tearing into tiny shreds. Thank goodness I found out about the 3M eraser wheel, which saved my life lol. Since this was the very first time I have ever done this, I was working at a pretty slow pace and instead of removing all the stripes at once and then installing the new ones, I was working in sections. For example remove old stripes from the hood, clean the hood and then putting the new stripes on. I was worried that if I messed up, I would run out of stripes and the car would look unfinished.

Just a helpful tip... if you plan to remove your old stripes, definitely buy an eraser wheel. It saved me sooooo much time and aggravation compared to using a heat gun. Before using the eraser wheel, the hood alone took me about 5 hours just to remove old stripes and clean everything with GooGone. If I had the eraser wheel, it would take me about 30 minutes.

Now, this whole process would take me about 10 hours... and it cost me $100 instead of $1,000 from the dealership.

Here are a few pictures of the whole process:

Using a hear gun before I found out about the eraser wheel


All the leftover glue


After cleaning with GooGone


All clean


Installing new stripes


New stripes installed on the hood


wtf... idk what the original owner was thinking.. apparently this spoiler was from a silver mustang and the swirl marks are pretty bad!


Hmmm... idk what happened here.... bad measurement??


Removing stripes with 3M eraser wheel


New stripe on the roof


workspace... you like all those Hot Wheels mustangs by the door?? :)


workspace


finished project minus spoiler


finished project


finished project


finished project


finished project


This is what the new racing stripes look like


Old racing stripes all faded and worn out


3M eraser wheel
 
O

omar@mmauto

Well-Known Member
#8
#8
Nice! From experience I can tell you working without the right tools makes body work a pain and more time consuming than it should be. What panel was the hardest to lay the stripes down on?
 
AlloyGT07

AlloyGT07

Well-Known Member
#9
#9
omar@mmauto said:
Nice! From experience I can tell you working without the right tools makes body work a pain and more time consuming than it should be. What panel was the hardest to lay the stripes down on?
Click to expand...
Having the right tools is definitely the key. Saves a LOT of time and spending an extra $30 (in my case on the eraser wheel) made a huge difference and really paid off time wise.

The 2 hardest parts were the front and rear bumpers and trunk. The reason being is that there are way too many curvy parts. Instead of doing the front bumper in one shot, I split the vinyl into 2 parts. Same goes for the trunk. I connected the vinyl in areas that you can't normally see unless you look at them from the bottom. The rear pumper on the other hand was done in one shot but the very bottom of the bumper is actually 9.5" instead of 10" like the rest. There are so many curves on it that in the end, the vinyl had to be trimmed a bit. The difference is so small that you can't even see it. Also the stripes I was using were not pre-cut so I had to do all the cutting and fitting myself. I guess with precut strips it could be a bit easier.

Here is a pic of where the stripes were connected on the front bumper and trunk.

 
loustang

loustang

Bronx Regional Coordinator / Member Plus
#10
#10
Hey nice looking stripes dude all that hard work paid off cause it looks like it's was done by a shop good work very nice :awesomework:
 
angelforbill

angelforbill

Member Plus
#12
#12
Nice work and thanks for mentioning the GooGone. I should pick up some Goo B Gone for the remnant of that tint cling crap that's left on my rear window. Enjoy the new look.
 
AlloyGT07

AlloyGT07

Well-Known Member
#13
#13
angelforbill said:
Nice work and thanks for mentioning the GooGone. I should pick up some Goo B Gone for the remnant of that tint cling crap that's left on my rear window. Enjoy the new look.
Click to expand...
Yeah the GooGone definitely helped. Also I would recommend using a terry cloth towel or something similar to it. Microfiber towels were too soft and didn't work well.
 
dsblk93gt

dsblk93gt

5.0 Moderator
#14
#14
Good job! I have done vinyl for along time and have striped a lot of cars and that looks nice! It is more work than most realize. The last one I did I charged around $250-350 to install I think.
 
AlloyGT07

AlloyGT07

Well-Known Member
#15
#15
dsblk93gt said:
Good job! I have done vinyl for along time and have striped a lot of cars and that looks nice! It is more work than most realize. The last one I did I charged around $250-350 to install I think.
Click to expand...
Yeah it is a lot of work. And $250-$350 is actually not bad. From what I hear, dealer installs new stripes for $500. And I had old stripes on so taking them off would be another $500. I have to say that installing the new stripes was not too hard and a good learning experience, but taking the off... completely different story lol.
 
blmereness

blmereness

Member Plus
#19
#19
ok so i got a question...i want stripes on my mustang as well. but my question is ..do the stripes hold up being that it isnt clear coated?

i was told they should be clearcoated or they might peel up in the sun.i wanted to do it but they guy quoted me at $2500 to do the stripes and clear
 
AlloyGT07

AlloyGT07

Well-Known Member
#20
#20
blmereness said:
ok so i got a question...i want stripes on my mustang as well. but my question is ..do the stripes hold up being that it isnt clear coated?

i was told they should be clearcoated or they might peel up in the sun.i wanted to do it but they guy quoted me at $2500 to do the stripes and clear
Click to expand...
The $2500 quote was probably on painted stripes. There is no way that someone could charge that much for vinyl. And to answer your questions, Iv never heard of anyone clear coating their vinyl stripes. They will eventually fade out (anywhere between 3-5 years) depending on if you keep your car in a garage or outside. This is why I had to replace mine. And no they will not peel off in the sun. The ones I got are made by 3M and are super strong once the adhesive dries. Peeling them off is actually really difficult.

One problem I see with clear coating them is that you have to be extremely careful to clear coat only the stripes. If you will ever want to take them off, you probably won't be able to.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.