To Stripe or Not to Stripe, that is the Question!

Need4Speed

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Got something for the Myth Busters here. If you Stripe a red car with say white vinyl GTS stripes, and then remove them say after 3-5 years, will you see a difference where the stripes where in the paint? Even if the car is waxed well and garaged all the time? Is it pretty noticable?

This may be a stupid question but just want to know.. Anyone experience this in the past?
 

trainville

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Saw it happen on a black car after 7 or 8 years. It was the pin striping that left marks. With a mild abrasive (swirl remover) the color difference was taken out. But again, this was on a daily driver that saw LOTS of sunlight and we all know black is the worst for paint imperfections.

On a Viper that is garaged most of the time, I wouldn't worry about it. After all, you will love the stripes so much, you will have them painted on and this will all be moot!
 

PatentLaw

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It will happen on red and blue cars as these vehicles have been known to fade more. Manufacturers have a more difficult time with these colors. Exposure is the key, as trainville states above. If the car stays outside, then watch out, it may be a problem.
 

IEATVETS

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I had vinyl on for 2 years and when I took them off, you could not tell they were there. I would not worry about it since "most" Vipers do not sit outside all of the time and are not daily drivers.
 

Nuck

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Red is the absolute worst color for sun fading. But if you want to stripe it why worry about removing them? I would be more conerned with how the vinyl stripes look compared to painted. BTW don't put white stripes on a red car. That is for Cobra replicas and GTS FEs. Silver looks incredible on a red Viper, especially an RT.
 

PDCjonny

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Red is the absolute worst color for sun fading. But if you want to stripe it why worry about removing them? I would be more conerned with how the vinyl stripes look compared to painted. BTW don't put white stripes on a red car. That is for Cobra replicas and GTS FEs. Silver looks incredible on a red Viper, especially an RT.

The whole point of vinyl striping is so they ARE removable if you change your mind or want a different color. Obviuously they can be painted on too. A good vinyl striping installtion is almost indistinguishable from paint by the way. I know, I have them and have people come right up to the car and run their finger over the edge and still can't tell. And don't worry about fading, there are documented cases of having the stripes on for 6-7 years and removing them with no difference a little buffing couldn't take out.

And you can use any color you want it's your car.
 

whitebluevipe

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unless you keep the car in total darkness you will notice a differnce from where the stripes were on the car when you take them off. same thing can happen if you use a car bra all the time.
 

Saint_Spinner

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Red is the absolute worst color for sun fading. But if you want to stripe it why worry about removing them? I would be more conerned with how the vinyl stripes look compared to painted. BTW don't put white stripes on a red car. That is for Cobra replicas and GTS FEs. Silver looks incredible on a red Viper, especially an RT.

Well, the same can be said about silver stripes. Silver is reserved for '99-'00 or whatever year they are available for...The white on red for the FE's were a tribute to the Le Mans winning viper as was the blue/white stripe a tribute toward's shelby's daytona.
 

Nuck

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Red is the absolute worst color for sun fading. But if you want to stripe it why worry about removing them? I would be more conerned with how the vinyl stripes look compared to painted. BTW don't put white stripes on a red car. That is for Cobra replicas and GTS FEs. Silver looks incredible on a red Viper, especially an RT.

The whole point of vinyl striping is so they ARE removable if you change your mind or want a different color. Obviuously they can be painted on too. A good vinyl striping installtion is almost indistinguishable from paint by the way. I know, I have them and have people come right up to the car and run their finger over the edge and still can't tell. And don't worry about fading, there are documented cases of having the stripes on for 6-7 years and removing them with no difference a little buffing couldn't take out.

And you can use any color you want it's your car.

Jon your input on vinyl stripes is very interesting. You will find a bunch of threads on here by people who have low opinions on the appearance of vinyl compared to painting. I certainly have no bias against them and the negative impressions some people have might be due to the supplier or installer of a particulat set rather than an inherent inferiority. That is why I said I would be more concerned with the appearance of the vinyl(as in watch what you buy), rather than something like "vinyl looks crappy".

I have been told $3000 was the original cost of the stripe option and that is about how much a good shop would tag you to do the painting. Obviously if vinyl looks the same and costs less it makes sense. How long have you had them?

As far as the fading goes wouldn't that depend on how much time the car spends outside? Like an Arizona car driven 7000 miles a year would show a lot worse than a Chicago car driven 2000 miles a year. I am an insurance adjuster and I base my comments on dealing with customers whose cars we repaint only the damaged panels on. Nothing shows fading like red, although some types of silver are pretty bad, and black shows clearcoat deterioration worse than most. I am not sure what you mean by documented cases that there is no stripe mismatch but I'll take your word for it. Maybe the vinyl doesn't block out the ultra violet so the fading is uniform. Or maybe because Viper owners typically tarp or garage their vehicles and use high quality waxes on them the paint is spared
the usual oxidation damage.

And I wasn't forbidding him to stripe with white, :) that is just my opinion which I think he understood. I love the white on the blue on a GTS, black or silver on a red GTS, black on the Bumblebee, or blue stripes on a silver GTS. Again, just an opinion, but RT10s don't look as natural with stripes as the GTS, so very few options improve the look of the car. Silver on red is an exception. I have never seen a black on red striped RT10 in real life so I can't say but I have seen several white on red and white on yellow RT10s. I have a yellow RT10 and I can't picture a stripe that would improve the look the way black does on a GTS.
 

Nuck

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Got something for the Myth Busters here. If you Stripe a red car with say white vinyl GTS stripes, and then remove them say after 3-5 years, will you see a difference where the stripes where in the paint? Even if the car is waxed well and garaged all the time? Is it pretty noticable?

This may be a stupid question but just want to know.. Anyone experience this in the past?

Opinions of stripe color aside, you aren't in a 12 month of sunshine a year area, and will be garaging the car in the summer so I can't see any measurable fading in that short of a time. Compare the amount of sunlight your car gets in a year to a daily driver in Nevada or Arizona. Maybe a fifth as much UV on an east coast car? Also your paint is already 5 years old so it isn't like you would be uncovering ****** unweathered red when the stripes come off.
My bet is you won't want the stripes off anyways. After my last post I called a detailer and he said they use the same product on cars that are driven daily and the striping is still in good shape after 8-9 years. The new products don't peel at the edges like the old 3M and vinyl is more resistant to chipping. Also I don't know what you were quoted but the guy I talked to thought around $1000 dollars so you could change the stripe color 3 times for the cost of painting the stripes once.It would be like getting a new car every 2 or 3 years :)
 

Nuck

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Red is the absolute worst color for sun fading. But if you want to stripe it why worry about removing them? I would be more conerned with how the vinyl stripes look compared to painted. BTW don't put white stripes on a red car. That is for Cobra replicas and GTS FEs. Silver looks incredible on a red Viper, especially an RT.

Well, the same can be said about silver stripes. Silver is reserved for '99-'00 or whatever year they are available for...The white on red for the FE's were a tribute to the Le Mans winning viper as was the blue/white stripe a tribute toward's shelby's daytona.

I see what you are saying but when I think of a roadster with white stripes I think A/C Cobra, not Viper. The GTS is modelled after the Cobra Daytona but that car is not nearly so common as the roadster and there certainly aren't a million white striped kit car versions of the Daytona coupe out there.
That is probably why I prefer other stripe colors on the RT10.
 

RedEnuf93

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2 years white stripes on red 1993. No fading.

In 2 years you can figure out if you want them painted or not. Vinyl looks very authentic, most of the people could not tell difference on my car. I wanted to experiment the stripes without paying 3K and disliking the color or stripes in general. Having them on my car, I would not want to be without them, so now my car is being painted and striped (with paint this time)

And I really dont care what others think about the stripes or what they remind of. It's my car and if I like purple with neon green stripes, its going to be purple with neon green stripes. Thats why mine has stripes and yours does not. I dont dislike the non-striped ones either. Its like liking big boops or small ones...

GO FOR IT!!!
 

PDCjonny

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Also I don't know what you were quoted but the guy I talked to thought around $1000 dollars so you could change the stripe color 3 times for the cost of painting the stripes once.It would be like getting a new car every 2 or 3 years :)

$1000.00 is WAY high for vinyl stripes installed. It's maybe $100.00 worth of material. They want $900.00 to install it?? No way. I paid $400.00 with the material here on Long Island installed and that was no bargain. Just for laughs I bought 20 feet of Avery's best 8 year vinyl online for $65.00 (Precut 8" wide with premask on it) basically because I wanted to learn how to install it. I pulled a perfectly good piece off the rear end and redid it myself and it looks perfect. It's not hard to do, but the layout takes time. So now I can repair or replace whenever I want.

Hell, next year I might throw on white or silver!
 

Nuck

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Also I don't know what you were quoted but the guy I talked to thought around $1000 dollars so you could change the stripe color 3 times for the cost of painting the stripes once.It would be like getting a new car every 2 or 3 years :)

$1000.00 is WAY high for vinyl stripes installed. It's maybe $100.00 worth of material. They want $900.00 to install it?? No way. I paid $400.00 with the material here on Long Island installed and that was no bargain. Just for laughs I bought 20 feet of Avery's best 8 year vinyl online for $65.00 (Precut 8" wide with premask on it) basically because I wanted to learn how to install it. I pulled a perfectly good piece off the rear end and redid it myself and it looks perfect. It's not hard to do, but the layout takes time. So now I can repair or replace whenever I want.

Hell, next year I might throw on white or silver!

I guess I should have told him it was for a Probe ;)
 

Nuck

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2 years white stripes on red 1993. No fading.

In 2 years you can figure out if you want them painted or not. Vinyl looks very authentic, most of the people could not tell difference on my car. I wanted to experiment the stripes without paying 3K and disliking the color or stripes in general. Having them on my car, I would not want to be without them, so now my car is being painted and striped (with paint this time)

And I really dont care what others think about the stripes or what they remind of. It's my car and if I like purple with neon green stripes, its going to be purple with neon green stripes. Thats why mine has stripes and yours does not. I dont dislike the non-striped ones either. Its like liking big boops or small ones...

GO FOR IT!!!

Yes we all have our preferences. I just checked out your pics. Very nice. Everything you have done kind of fits together. A little customized but a pure Viper look. Are you going factory red again with the new paint or something more exotic?
 

RikRok

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Sometimes the adhesive will haze the clear coat,,thats when you can see it.
 

RedEnuf93

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[/QUOTE]Yes we all have our preferences. I just checked out your pics. Very nice. Everything you have done kind of fits together. A little customized but a pure Viper look. Are you going factory red again with the new paint or something more exotic?

[/QUOTE]

Hi Nuck,
I wanted to do something exotic, like blue/white RT/10, hey... I even thought candy purple with white stripes or a gold with black stripes.
Eventually I figured out thet the best color for a sports car is red. Boring, maybe, but it REALLY looks fantastic in red. Since I am going to paint the complete car, I could have chosen any color, but red it will be, with pearl white stripes.
 

IEATVETS

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I don't know why some people say that RT's don't look good striped! I get compliments on my stripes everywhere I go. I had mine painted on that is how much I like the stripes.
 

PDCjonny

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Sometimes the adhesive will haze the clear coat,,thats when you can see it.

Nothing that can't be buffed out with a PC and some quality swirl removing polish.
 

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