I paid someone who was recommended to me to install stripes on my car. He did a good job but the stripes taper toward the front of the hood and on the roof. I thought I could live with it but everytime I look at them from the front it bothers me. Do you think they could be trimmed to make the gap even or do I need to have them taken off and reinstalled?

 

redone by someone else

 

I would get your money back. Why are they tapered?

 

Because of the curve of the hood I assume. We're they supposed to stretch them in order to maintain the 1" gap?

 

Get your money back or have em take off those and apply new stripes at no cost

 

Reinstallation job is in order...hope it works out for ya...

 

The bulge shouldn't matter. As long as you measure, and lay the tape right, it'll be straight. If it tapers, it's the outside of the stripe.

 

I could see the taper in the tiny thumbnail on my phone before I even read your post. Imagine it in person!

Take that shlt back. That is way too nice of a car to half @ss.

 

You should talk to Danielle... Something about grabber blue cars acting up while getting striped. Lol

 

OEM stripes are tapered.
On my car, the short section from the front of the hood to the heat vent has an 1/8" taper. The section from the rear of the heat vent to the windshield has 1/2" taper. The total amout of taper from the front of the hood to it's rear is 3/4"..
If the stripes you had installed are straight, that is the problem.
.

 

So the stripes have to have a taper in them before you install them? I bought some from a website that was recommended to me here. I believe they were completely straight.

 

looks not so good. Call the guy and ask him to make it right

 

Have them redone. Do not let someone attempt to do it any other way than ripping them off and applying new material.

 

Well now I don't know if its the guy who installed them or the stripes themselves. I got the stripes from here. http://www.americanmuscle.com/1011-racing-stripes.html

 

This does not see logical. I beg to differ. How many of you have ordered the tapered set of vinyl stripes from anywhere?

 

Right, I had to have mine redone twice and it was only the hood.

 

Yeah I plan on having them redone. Might get away with just redoing the roof and hood, the trunk and bumpers look ok. Right now I just need to know is there a problem with those stripes I ordered or is it all the installers fault. I don't want to order another set and wind up with the same screwed up mess.

 

The Le Mans Stripes from Graphic Express are top quality 3M and licensed by Ford (as well as GM and Chrysler) and they are tapered in front, and the inner edge that goes towards center is also slightly curved so when applied, it's straight.

So, what did you do? I too looked at American Muscle, but when I saw their stripes were all cut straight, I knew they would not lay right or need stretching. The Graphic Express stripes are cut with body curves in mind and lay right. 1.5" center stripe, which is near 1/16 wider than common 1.44" wide blue masking tape, so I held mine about 1/32" off the center marker stripe. They came out straight.

 

Before you tear them off measure them out to see where they sit. You want to know what your telling the installer when you go back to him. I did my own on my last car and I did allot of measuring and marking with masking tape prior to the job. The taper is for effect.

 

You can also change the look by adding an outer pin stripe on the outside.