Cavero

Need help on which way to go with stripes. I'm taking the car in next week to have the hood and rear bumper painted. It'll take 3 days and cost $700 (gotta love DC labor rates). If I get stripes painted, it'll be $3500 and they'll need the car for 2.5 weeks. If I get vinyl done it'll be an extra 1000 installed on top of the 700 for paint for top quality vinyl that they sayll last 5-10 years, but it'll take 4 days to do, and that's after waiting 30 days for the fresh stuff to outgas. Vinyl also isn't available in every color

So its an issue of cost, durability, looks, the amount of time ill be without my daily driver, and instant gratification.

Kpd3014

Personally I think it's worth the money for paint. No fade. Smooth with no lines if they do it right. And you can increase the width of the stripes as well as extend it all the way down the front and back.

2010MustangGT

$1700 for vinyl stripes?!

The vinyl kits have been done with great success. Stangmods has some nice sets I find in lots of colors. http://www.stangmods.com/Mustang-Vin...hics-s/225.htm

I like the 10" with pin stripes...

Use stangmods as a coupon code as well.

While painted is nice, it's not necessary to get the overall look.

Cavero

No, $700 is a worst-case scenario to have the bare fiberglass hood and mismatching GT500 bumper painted (worst case if the fenders have to be blended). This is going to be done regardless. The $1000 is a worst-case to have the custom set of stripes professionally installed. The problem is the CS-6 hood. The pre-cut kits won't fit that hood, so it's gotta be custom.

Here's the car so you can see why the pre-cut kits won't work with my hood:


Oh and then there's the CDC aggressive chin spoiler too. That complicates even further, so it would probably be the full $1000 for vinyl

RMB427R

You're going in next week and asking for opinions now? Personally, if you don't have your heart set on how you want it to look by now, I would just have the paint work done have the stripes done later. Take your time and think of what you really want. Remember, it's going to cost a lot of money and you'd better be happy with it....if you know what I mean..

With all of the mismatching that you mentioned above, it may make sense to have it painted.

Good luck with whatever you decide and don't forget to post pics!!

Cavero

Nope, kind of a funny misunderstanding. I looked on their website and it said "racer paint job -$1200". So I called them up and asked how much to do stripes, they said "$1200". This was a month ago while I was waiting for my hood to show up. Then I got to the shop, had my heart set on painting but then I said "so how long will you need it for to paint the stripes", he said "Paint? I thought we were talking vinyl here. Paint's gonna be closer to the $3500 the other shop quoted you". I asked about the "racer" thing on their website and they pointed out that's for race cars, i.e. you hit it with a quick paint job to take it to the track but dont' care how it looks up close because it's gonna get beat up. So yeah at the last minute I had to figure out whether I was going to get this done in paint or vinyl because of this nasty little surprise.

I think I'm going to do paint after all.

Oh I'll definitely do pics. I keep advertising it all around but no one's looking, but I'll try again. Check out this thread for the whole project.

Cavero

So anyone think the car will look weird if I don't paint the lower valence on the rear bumper? (leaving the rocker panels alone) I kind of like it the way it is

tdbrown75

I had vinyl on mine for 4 years. Never was quite happy with it. Wax builds up along the sides, it stains easily, fades, does not look like paint finish and it chips and scratches VERY easily. However having put mine on myself for $250 they worked well for a daily driver.

Eventually they just got too horrible to show any longer, so I opted to have them painted. I paid just about what you are being quoted. The job involved removing the glass, sanding all the surfaces, filling the rock chips on the hood and front bumper, striping, and then several thick coats of clear which was then blocked to be perfectly smooth. I had them do my engine and radiator covers too (engine covers were painted solid). The job came out near perfect, there are a few small problem areas but overall I'm happy with them.

It's a lot of money for stripes, but the car really pops and frankly there's just no comparison between the two. Mine's now a "garage queen" that I take to shows and run my weekend errands with. To be honest not many people even notice they are painted, but I do and to me it's a huge difference. Here's the thread I did at the time. After a nice buff the car looks like a wet lollypop if that makes sense!

https://themustangsource.com/f691/so...-vinyl-492705/

Tim

Cavero

Nice, they look great. I decided to go painted stripes because of the durability probs everyone was citing. even the vinyl shop itself was saying only expect 5 years out of them. In the end I decided to go with this color combo (demonstration with chunks I cut out of the bumper to fit the chin spoiler, held up against the candidate car):



Car goes into the shop tomorrow afternoon, not to be seen again for 2 weeks!

tdbrown75

Good choice! Can't wait to see how they turn out, those two colors do look great together. Two weeks sounds a little on the optimistic side though, better be prepared for it to take a little longer then that.

Tim

Cavero

They told me 2 to 2.5 weeks, I'm guessing 3 at worst unless things go bad. I remember seeing a mess in their shop last week and it was really weighing on me...I was warned to make sure any prospective shop's work areas were clean before picking them...it shows they care about their work. This place came highly recommended, so I decided to talk to them thoroughly to make sure they care about what they do. After they convinced me I decided to go with them. I dropped the car off today, got a second look at their stalls, and they were full, but clean. And you wouldn't believe the Lotus's and Vettes, a classic stang and a new GT500. That coupled with them volunteering to call and send pics along the way to keep me updated, really put my mind at ease. I can't wait

RMB427R

Yep, it's going to be awesome! I may bite the bullet and get my stripes painted as well.

tdbrown75

Allow me to be the first to say...




Nanners man! Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Tim

SoFlo Mustang

Its gana look awesome! Congrats!

Cavero

So I talked to the shop yesterday. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "So how's it coming along? Still going to lay out the stripes tomorrow?"
Pete (shop guy): "Yeah, we got the car apart now, the guys're prepping it to lay down the stripe color tomorrow, then we'll mask it off..."
Me: "Wait---what? Paint it then mask?"
Pete: "Yeah, we're going to lay down the stripe color, mask off the stripes, then lay down the base color and clear over the whole thing"

The rest of the conversation was them clearing up my misconception of how they are going to do this. I thought (probably like you did) that they were going to lay the stripe color ON TOP of the existing base coat. But as you can tell by now, they do the opposite. Brilliant Silver is going to be UNDER Tungsten. I asked them why, they said it's a much better effect. I'm not going to tell them how to do their job, they obviously know what they're doing. I didn't stop them.

But I gotta ask: Anyone else have their stripes painted this way?

Kpd3014

Yes, if done correctly and blended before the clear you should have no lines. If they mask then paint the stripes you would have a line like vinyl stripes. Your car should be smooth after they are done.

tdbrown75

When they did mine they repainted the base, then taped it off, laid down the stripes and cleared the whole thing.

Either way the lines should be blocked/sanded out so there's no raised (or in your case lowered) area where the stripes are, the only difference is that the clear would be thicker on the stripes then the rest of the panel whereas on mine it's just the opposite.

I've not heard of doing it that way but I don't see how it would make any difference really in the end.

Tim

Cavero

Just seeing the progress now, I'm so glad I'm going painted. In case you guys were wondering how it's coming:

tdbrown75

Looking GREAT! Did they pull the glass out too or are they working around it? Hard to tell from the pics.

Tim

Cavero

Thanks, they're working around it. In the 60K Upgrade thread I'm running I have lots more pics, including them masking it off