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Rally Stripes...

5K views 12 replies 8 participants last post by  bloverby 
#1 ·
I have a 1977 Cutlass Supreme which I'm redoing. I'll be painting it tomorrow. I'm going with Pepper Grey Metallic as the main color and Black Metallic as the rally stripe color. I was wondering what's the best way to lay the rally stripes down and the best order to paint them.
Should I spray the black base first and then mask off the stripes to save on masking time and paper? Should I spray the whole car with the pepper grey metallic and then mask off the stripes and shoot black? Or should I paint the whole car in grey metallic, clear it, wait for it to dry, and then put the stripes on at a later time so I can take my time laying down the stripes perfectly?
Also, what's the best way to mask off rally stripes?

Sorry for the long-winded post...
 
#2 ·
JLarson69 said:
I have a 1977 Cutlass Supreme which I'm redoing. I'll be painting it tomorrow. I'm going with Pepper Grey Metallic as the main color and Black Metallic as the rally stripe color. I was wondering what's the best way to lay the rally stripes down and the best order to paint them.
Should I spray the black base first and then mask off the stripes to save on masking time and paper? Should I spray the whole car with the pepper grey metallic and then mask off the stripes and shoot black? Or should I paint the whole car in grey metallic, clear it, wait for it to dry, and then put the stripes on at a later time so I can take my time laying down the stripes perfectly?
Also, what's the best way to mask off rally stripes?

Sorry for the long-winded post...
I say to do the grey first, then the stipes, then clear over it all. Get all your stipe dimensions down first so you will be able to do it quick enough to stay in your re-coat window for everything.

Use the tape that is designed for stripes. It's 1/4" wide and has very clean edges. Then use masking paper on the 1/4" tape. If your stripes have any tight corners, you might want to use the 1/8" stripe mask tape as it is easier to make turns with it. Get the top of a jar exactly the size of the radius in the stripe corners to use as a template to help taping.
Lay everything out on the car before you even start painting so you have it all down in your mind on how you want it to look.
If you are going for factory stripe dimensions, you might find a complete template kit for it.
 
#4 ·
302/Z28 said:
Normal method is paint the entire car first, mask off the stripes then spray them black, then clear coat the whole car. I cannot imagine doing black stripes first then painting the car grey.

Vince
I've done it both ways. It makes for a lot less masking when you paint the stripes first. Just paint the general area and tape off the stripes.
Bob
 
#5 ·
Bob C said:
I've done it both ways. It makes for a lot less masking when you paint the stripes first. Just paint the general area and tape off the stripes.
Bob
This way works like a champ and you can't feel the transition from one color to the other when the paint work is done. We just painted a car with stripes painted in that manner and you can't feel the color change. We used single stage ChromaOne. I ended up color sanding the car because of orange peel, but before sanding it was hard to feel where the stripes began. We actually taped the stripes and painted them and then taped over them and painted the rest of the car.
 
#6 ·
I was thinking about this, and yeah, if you sprayed the black first in the area of the stripes, then masked off what you want to leave for the stripe then sprayed the grey, then removed the paper over the stripes and cleared the whole thing it would be a lot less masking and less painted that would be nearing the time window. But the way it is normally done, spray the car first, then mask and paint the stripes. I think the first way would look a little bit goofy if the line was not lost when clearing, if the grey of the car was a little higher then the black stripes at the masked line. If it was the other way around with a black stripes being a smidge higher, it would look like normal, or like if vinyl stripes were installed instead of being painted. I may be wrong, and with a clear being applied, at may not be true, but this was what was keeping me from saying paint the black first.
 
#7 ·
kenseth17 said:
I was thinking about this, and yeah, if you sprayed the black first in the area of the stripes, then masked off what you want to leave for the stripe then sprayed the grey, then removed the paper over the stripes and cleared the whole thing it would be a lot less masking and less painted that would be nearing the time window. But the way it is normally done, spray the car first, then mask and paint the stripes. I think the first way would look a little bit goofy if the line was not lost when clearing, if the grey of the car was a little higher then the black stripes at the masked line. If it was the other way around with a black stripes being a smidge higher, it would look like normal, or like if vinyl stripes were installed instead of being painted. I may be wrong, and with a clear being applied, at may not be true, but this was what was keeping me from saying paint the black first.
It has it's pros and cons. If you are trying to reproduce a factory stripe then the stripes are painted last. Most of what is done now is to get better than factory paint. In that case we just bury everything in clear for a smooth surface over the stripes.
Bob
 
#8 ·
I was finally convinced to just lay down the grey and clear it and wait for it to dry so I could take my time on it.
I just did it yesterday and I put on two coats of Omni color with a mist coat and three coats of Omni clear. It looked great when I got done spraying, but I baked it and the next day it had died back really bad. So now I'm going to sand the whole thing down with 800 grit on a DA, mask off the rally stripes, go spray the black, remove the paper, and clear the whole car again. I don't think I'm going to bake it this time.
I'm not a big fan of Omni clear, but I'm on a budget.
I wish they made a stencil for my car, but '77 Supremes never came with rally stripes, so I'm just going to have to wing it and try to line them up with the grills.



roger1 said:
Use the tape that is designed for stripes. It's 1/4" wide and has very clean edges. Then use masking paper on the 1/4" tape. If your stripes have any tight corners, you might want to use the 1/8" stripe mask tape as it is easier to make turns with it. Get the top of a jar exactly the size of the radius in the stripe corners to use as a template to help taping.
Lay everything out on the car before you even start painting so you have it all down in your mind on how you want it to look.
If you are going for factory stripe dimensions, you might find a complete template kit for it.
Do you mean the 3M blue fine line tape?
 
#10 ·
I like to do the stripes first whenever possible, makes for much less chance of disturbing any paint during the masking stage, less masking, faster operation. When I do flames on a complete repaint the first color to go down is the border stripe, then the main flame, then the main car color then I come back and do any shadowing while the flames are still masked. Saves a whole bunch of time and makes for a cleaner job IMO.
 
#13 ·
Well the tape I can handle. Put a striping brush in my hand and turn me loose on fresh base thats another story. :D

I can't think of a single time I have painted the largest surface first. then masked for graphics. Im lazy and hate masking so I try to do as little as possible.
 
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