Hey everyone,

My girlfriend and I might possibly be getting back into the Mustang scene soon after a very painful hiatus. We've been looking around at sub-$20k GT's and some of our better options of all-around cars are in colors like silver and grey. While there's nothing wrong with those colors, we don't really want them due to their subtlety, and the fact that I've had 3 silver/gray cars already. We'd probably go black on a silver car, and black or a light silver on a gray car, like Tungsten.

Anywho, if we were going to get a white, silver or gray car, we'd probably end up getting stripes painted on. It would be the Shelby look with the dual fat stripes. What I'm wondering is:

a.) what's the average cost of having them painted on (I'm in Ohio, if that matters)
b.) is there anything to be aware of or to specifically ask to have done
c.) I've seen in some other threads, people referring to having their stripes tapered. What is that referring to exactly?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

Just make sure they will be wet sanding the stripes/clear to remove the edge off the stripe, so you do not feel it. I just had a stripe 22" wide stripe painted on mine, and I made sure they guy was going to do this. The first shop I talked to gave me a price, and then when I said about wet sanding the edge, the price went up a little bit.

I got quotes between $400-$500, but this was in Canadian money. Check with a local Mustan club, and see if they have any recommendations of where to go.

 

Hey John, congrats on getting back into the scene. In regards to stripes, the price varies by the shop. Some do it for a fairly resonable price, while some shops just want WAY TOO MUCH!!! Some things you want to make sure of would be the following:

Make sure they plan on removing ALL panels that will be painted!! Some shops in the beginning would paint the stripes with the bumpers, hood and trunklid still attached! This is a BIG NO NO!!! If this is how they plan on doing it, RUN FAR AWAY!!! Trust me, some placed were doing it this way.

Next, make sure they plan on getting under the weatherstripping on the top of the front windshield, and down in the back windshield. This makes the stripes look like they go under the glass.

Sean hit the nail on the head, with the wet sanding (good job bud).

Lastly, they should go into the license plate area, though, I've seen some painted stripes that didn't.

To answer your question about 'Tapered" stripes. What this is, is back in the day, the original Shelby GT350 Mustangs ni '65-'66 didn't have a set width from front to back for the stripes. They actually started more narrow on the front bumper and widened up on the roof, and tapered back heading on the trunk and back panel. The dimensions of them are below:

9 1/4" lower front bumper, then widens to 10 1/2" at the front of the windsheld
10 1/2" front of roof, then widens to 10 3/8" at the back of the roof
10" on the top of the trunk and back of car.

You can have any shop to this, but find a shop that is familiar with alot of custom work. Tapering the stripes requires time, and patience to measure the widths and tape off the panels. It does look good though.

I've had the stripes painted on my car for almost 3 years now (was the 1st in my area with stripes that were painted on) and they look as shiny now as they did when they were 1st put on. Just shop around, and ask the body shop, if they had done LeMans stripes on a Mustang yet. If he's a shop that does custom work, chances are they have done this job already, and are familiar with the wants/needs of the customer.

Good luck and be sure to post pictures up as soon as you get it done.

 

Thanks for the responses guys. But it looks like the stripes won't matter any more. We made a deal on a left over '08 GT/CS on Saturday and we'll be picking up the car today sometime. It was too late for them to get it for us on Saturday since the car we wanted was at another dealership. It's Dark Candy Apple red with the Dove/Charcoal interior, HIDs, and heated seats. So, once we get "The Call", we're both leaving work and going to pick up our combined 5th Mustang. I can't wait! Pics will follow in the appropriate forum asap!

 

Congrads on the new car!

 

Thanks!

 

Candy Apple Red is a beautiful color too. Congrats!!