Pin striping

I have a set of Kawasaki luggage bags made buy vetter and a series 32 front fairing for Kawasaki. I need to redo the pin striping do anyone know were I can get it? I checked and I can only come up with hand painting it. Is there a tool which will make it easier. Do any one know of pin striping that can turn corners?

pg4827 wrote:

I have a set of Kawasaki luggage bags made buy vetter and a series 32 front fairing for Kawasaki. I need to redo the pin striping do anyone know were I can get it?

Sure. Most any auto parts store should have stripe tape in an applicable color in a variety of widths.

The thinner the tape, the easier it is to follow a curve. The tighter the radius, the harder it is on the inside edge of the tape.

Clean tape application is like playing Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice....

I checked and I can only come up with hand painting it.

I'd recommend getting an old car hood to practice on and about half a bobble of your favorite gutwash to steady the hands before trying it for real. There's guys out there that get fairly big bucks for doing freehand stipe work. Takes practice, a touch and an ability to ignore everything else going on around you.

Is there a tool which will make it easier.

Not to my knowledge. You could, however, make a template out of card-stock cardboard to use as a guide for making the curves.

Do any one know of pin striping that can turn corners?

Square corners in tape are usually spliced.

Another option is to paint your stripes on. Gives you the option of multiple re-tries doing the masking until satisfied with the appearance, much more durable than stripe tape, and looks much better under clear.

You don't need to load gobs of paint on stripes. Shoot light and dry. Pull the masking within 30 minutes of shooting stripe color, as when the paint sets, it may pull the stripe up along with it...

Here's a recent job:




Hope that helps...

Post edited by: Pterosaur, at: 2006/07/29 10:00

I think that job looks great pterosaur! Thats paint? How many tries before you got what you were happy with?

PT is right about the painting of stripes instead of using pinstripe. Either way it is not a five minute job.

I am just going through this right now. A customer of mine owns a sign shop and hand paints signs as well as computer cut graphics. He had my tank for 6 weeks before giving up on trying to get a close factory finish by laying out a computer cut mask for a template. He played around with it for hours and found it way too tough for him to nail dead-on given the compound curves from the top, sides and back area of the tank. Multiply the job's difficulty by two as there are a pair of different colours.

I have since taken the tank to another customer who owns an art supply business and she does airbrushing. She will use 1/4 masking tape to lay out the lines and curves after stripping the tank of the clear coat.

I never thought it would be such a difficult task to match the factory '77 Moon Dust Silver with a perfect striping job. I was hoping to have this extra tank done back in May but ain't got it yet. I am sure it will look sweet when it is finally done. At that point I will have completed my sleeper bike.

Cheers-Colin Firth-Ontario Canada
1977 Kz 650 Custom/810 Wiseco with lottsa go fast goodies.

pumps wrote:

I think that job looks great pterosaur! Thats paint? How many tries before you got what you were happy with?

Thanks.

The white is an International truck fleet color (DuPont Centari), and the stripes are just PJ-1 rattlecan black. The pic above was before clear was applied.

For me, the masking was a one-time run through, say 1/2 hour - 45 minutes to mask. But then, I've done this a few times...

Couple shots of clear and a polish job, and it's a one-up match for a factory job:

reborn650 wrote:

PT is right about the painting of stripes instead of using pinstripe. Either way it is not a five minute job....

Oh yeah!

Couple of other tips:

Painting on stripes has a number of advantages - it conveys a sense of *class* to a job - that you may have spent a ton more than you actually did (though some people actually do... :whistle:)

Done right, it's a much *cleaner* solution - and if you shoot the stripe paint judiciously, once cleared, lightly wet-sanded and polished, they are embedded - no raised edges on the final surface.

Just practice, practice, practice, use no more stripe color than necessary, be careful pulling your mask and be ready to shoot clear within an hour or two of shooting the stripe.

Addendum:

DO NOT waste your time and money with cheap-ass stripe masking tapes.

3M Blue in various widths is the ONLY way to go that I'm satisfied with. It comes in 1/16", 1/8", 1/4" - and up, but it's really only necessary to use /16" and /8" - once the stripe edge is masked, overlay with regular old masking tape.

Remember - the *tighter* the radius, the narrower the mask tape to use - the tape will want to bunch up on the inside curve, and stretch on the outside, so the more tape you're trying to jam into a bend, the more it will wan t to deform....

Post edited by: Pterosaur, at: 2006/07/29 12:38

Thanks very much for your advice I will practice and do as you said. If I cant get it can I get you to do it for me?

Pterosaur wrote:

pumps wrote:

I think that job looks great pterosaur! Thats paint? How many tries before you got what you were happy with?

Thanks.

The white is an International truck fleet color (DuPont Centari), and the stripes are just PJ-1 rattlecan black. The pic above was before clear was applied.

For me, the masking was a one-time run through, say 1/2 hour - 45 minutes to mask. But then, I've done this a few times...

Couple shots of clear and a polish job, and it's a one-up match for a factory job:

show of!:S :Pbut ya know it ont hold up as well as stock 30 year old pin stripes ,or so ive heard on here somewhere anyway!:whistle: :evil: :evil:

Post edited by: wireman, at: 2006/07/29 17:33

wireman wrote:

...but ya know it ont hold up as well as stock 30 year old pin stripes ,or so ive heard on here somewhere anyway!:whistle: :evil: :evil:

:dry:

pg4827 wrote:

Thanks very much for your advice I will practice and do as you said...

You're welcome.

...If I cant get it can I get you to do it for me?

Sure - just send the pieces and a blank check made out to Cash - Adolph Cash... :evil: :whistle:

You're really better off just taking your time and learning how to do it - it ain't rocket science.

Maybe put up a pic or two of the pieces and a few more details about what you're looking to accomplish and I'll see if I can't butcher some answers together in a reply - that way everybody that's interested gets to look it over - these kinds of topics are pretty popular...

Pterosaur wrote:

wireman wrote:

...but ya know it ont hold up as well as stock 30 year old pin stripes ,or so ive heard on here somewhere anyway!:whistle: :evil: :evil:

:dry:

remember what the doctor said,we wont get anywhere if you keep holding back!now what do you really think?:ohmy: :evil:

wireman wrote:

...remember what the doctor said,we wont get anywhere if you keep holding back!now what do you really think?:ohmy: :evil:

Does:

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning." ring any bells?