Painting Stripes on a 2010 Camaro SS - Striped Right

With the entire perimeter of the stripe laid out, John comes back and carefully puts tape on both sides of the initial line.

Then he pulls out the first line he laid out, leaving the perfect 1/4-inch separation. This is why John uses this procedure; the stripes don't become larger or smaller than his original plans. Any pieces of tape that overlap into the paint area, like in the corners are trimmed off with a razorblade.

To duplicate the front spacing on the trunk, a pounce pattern will be made out of a large sheet of masking paper and a grease pencil or crayon. John taped the paper on the hood and rubbed the edge of the crayon over the design. The crayon will leave a darker line where it crosses over the tape, which will be easy to follow in the next step.

The rubbing is removed from the Camaro and laid on cardboard. A pounce wheel is used to follow the traced lines, punching tiny little holes in the paper. These can be picked up at most automotive paint supply houses or from companies like Eastwood.

After the holes are in the pattern, it is lined up on the center of the deck lid. An old, but clean sock is filled with ordinary line chalk and taped shut. Rubbing/patting the chalk-filled sock over the pattern will send chalk through the holes and leave a nice dotted line to follow with tape.

After following his dotted line and laying out the decklid, the rest of the areas that will not be painted get carefully masked off. Make sure the tape is nice and smooth. Any wrinkles in the tape can let the paint creep in, which will then need to be sanded off before you can lay down the clear.

The paints John used for this project are Debeer/Valspar Paint Products he got from Gateway Coatings and Supply. They are urethane paints mixed with a hardener rated for a non-baked booth at a temperature range of 64 to 95 degrees fahrenheit, perfect for his location. When asked why John uses these products he said, "They are cost-effective urethanes with a full spectrum of colors for custom and collision refinishing." After mixing up the custom orange, John dumped it in his Sata Jet 3000 HVLP gun with a 1.3 tip, set his air pressure to 29psi and adjusted his fan down. John focuses his spray to just the outer stripe and lays down two coats of the orange.

After about 20 minutes at 70 degrees, the orange is dry enough to mask off. Masking over the orange will protect it from the black that will be sprayed in the center stripe.

Same gun, same procedure. John now fills in the center stripe with three coats of black. The wing and taillight panel also got sprayed at the same time but those are out of site in the back of the booth.

After another 20 minutes, the tape was removed to reveal the SS stripes. This is the point where the stripe areas are scrutinized for any miss tapes or blow-throughs. A careful masking job will prevent these, but if you happen to find one you can just lightly sand it off with some 800-grit paper.

Before the design is sealed up with the clear, all the areas are cleaned off with a water-based wax and grease cleaner and then a tack rag. This will cut down on the chance of fish eyes and dust from screwing up your finish. A fish eye is a tiny surface blemish that resembles small circles of popped paint bubbles usually caused by a small amount of oil on the surface.

For the clear, John switches to a DeVilbiss JGA 53G gun with a 1.4 tip. John says, "If you are spraying clear over graphics that have tape lines like stripes, spray a light coat (tack coat) over the stripes first. Let it flash, and then you can do go back and do two wet coats. This will reduce the chance of creating runs along the tape lines where clear will build up the fastest.

After the fist round of clear was dry, John came in and sanded it with some Mirka 800 wet or dry paper. This will lessen the bump where the clear goes over the stripes. To cut down on the chance your paper will gouge as you sand, soak all the wet or dry paper in a bucket of clean water overnight to soften the paper's backing.

Another round of clear and sanding with 1500 paper was performed before the car was rubbed out, producing a nice, slick shine. John passed on a tip: On your final coat of clear, go ahead and over-reduce it by one more part. This will help it lay flatter, but make sure to turn down the air just a bit.

After it was all said and done, the Camaro had the paint to match the power. John said this job ran a little shy of $2,000, but would be a little less if the stripes were all black. Now if you want the stencil kit that John has crafted from these...