To stripe or not to stripe

[Trstno1]

Do the stripe vinyls have any sort of adhesive on them to help them cling to the body? Or are they more like vinyls that weekend rally-ers apply to the sides of their cars?

I'm asking because I'm going to be entering an event where the second type of vinyls is going to be used. Of course, these cling nicely to painted cars, but I'm not sure what they will do against the brushed stainless of the DMC-12. I will continue to search the forum in case my question has been answered, but if the stripes you sell have an adhesive, and an adhesive is needed to make anything cling to the stainless, knowing that information will save me a lot of time and heartache.

I'm 99% sure there is adhesive.

[PJ Grady Inc.]

"I'm asking because I'm going to be entering an event where the second type of vinyls is going to be used."

I have no idea what you are saying but I've never seen a stripe kit supplied without adhesive. It would be a messy, problematic, installation at best.
Rob

[jamesrguk]

Do the stripe vinyls have any sort of adhesive on them to help them cling to the body? Or are they more like vinyls that weekend rally-ers apply to the sides of their cars?

I'm asking because I'm going to be entering an event where the second type of vinyls is going to be used. Of course, these cling nicely to painted cars, but I'm not sure what they will do against the brushed stainless of the DMC-12. I will continue to search the forum in case my question has been answered, but if the stripes you sell have an adhesive, and an adhesive is needed to make anything cling to the stainless, knowing that information will save me a lot of time and heartache.

I think you're referring to those vinyl stickers which stick to very flat surfaces but are not sticky to the touch, the kind of thing that windscreen tax disk holders and car club 'stickers' are made of, I beleive they rely on 'Static Cling' which will most likely only work on a very smooth surface such as paint or glass.

I think you would struggle to get that stuff to adhere to the stainless steel with any sort of strength, but you're not going to cause any harm by trying.

The stripes which Rob and others sell are backed with adhesive, in essence they're cut peices of sticky tape.

J

[Trstno1]

Hervey's is textured. The "DMC" is a cutout.

Cleaned the stainless with 91% isopropanol prior to application.

Application was standard decal technique: a tablespoon of dish soap in a bucket of water applied to surface, plastic squeegee, etc. It helped that it was a warm day, so the liquids evaporated quickly and didn't make too much of a mess. This was several years ago, so I can't give you a blow-by-blow account, but I recall there being no mishaps. The Hervey decals are made of a good, thick material which didn't tear even during repositioning (of course, adding more soapy water helped this).

This is the type of squeegee we used. It's made by 3M.

Alright -

So I just want to get this strait as I'll be putting my stripes on this weekend. You mix some dish soap with water into a spray bottle. Clean the surface of the car with alcohol. spray with soapy water, then place your decals right? The soapy water will allow some give and movement of the decals. Once they are where they should be, just squeegee out the water and boom, you're done?

[Farrar]

Alright -

So I just want to get this strait as I'll be putting my stripes on this weekend. You mix some dish soap with water into a spray bottle. Clean the surface of the car with alcohol. spray with soapy water, then place your decals right? The soapy water will allow some give and movement of the decals. Once they are where they should be, just squeegee out the water and boom, you're done?

That's pretty much it. You can find tutorials online. The process is the same whether you're putting stripes on bare stainless or painted steel. Just don't use too much soap - a tablespoon of soap in a big bucket of water is enough.

[bfloyd]

I'm going to be attempting to install Hervey's Wide Side Stripe kit on Saturday morning. Any tips or advise before I screw up $109 worth of stickers?? Temperatures are supposed to be in the mid 70's tomorrow..

When I had my front and rear fascias repainted last year, the bodyshop that did them put them on really nice and tight. What's the best way to wrap the stripe around the fender panels without disturbing my fascia alignment too much?

[jamesrguk]

I'm going to be attempting to install Hervey's Wide Side Stripe kit on Saturday morning. Any tips or advise before I screw up $109 worth of stickers?? Temperatures are supposed to be in the mid 70's tomorrow..

When I had my front and rear fascias repainted last year, the bodyshop that did them put them on really nice and tight. What's the best way to wrap the stripe around the fender panels without disturbing my fascia alignment too much?

Not sure how thick J.H's stripes are, most of the reproduction stripes are thin vinyl and as such can simply be wrapped around the end using a blunt plastic spatula of some kind, thicker stripes may just require cutting with a craft knife.

A few tips here:

stripeinstructions_1.jpg

1) Main thing I often see done (incorrectly IMHO) is not properly aligning the curved end of the stripes to the end of the rub strip/wheel arch, do this then work towards the straight end, you can always cut any surplus off at the straight end. It's clearer to see what I am talking about in the fitting instructions above where there is an example.

2) Also for the sake of undoing a few Philips screws, I advise you to pop off the side lights, in most cases these sit slightly lower than the rub strip and if not removed you won't be able to butt the top edge of the stripe up against the rub strip.

3) If you're worried about positioning *most* adhesive vinyls are happy to be set down on a damp surface, spray the stainless with a mist of water from a flower sprayer/hair sprayer, this will allow you to slide the stripe part around on the surface if you are not happy with the placement. It will still dry and adhere properly, though you will likely have to do a little more squeegee action to remove bubbles beneath the surface (depending on how thick the vinyl is).


James

[bfloyd]

When I applied my reproduction stripes from Hervey, I took an Xacto knife and trimmed the backing paper along the top edge so I'd have a perfectly straight 1/8" strip to line up against the rub strips. Doing this, I have a 1/8" separation between the bottom of the rub strip and the top of the stripe. I think it turned out great.

[dn010]

I am curious, how is it when it comes to cleaning the stainless, with these stripes installed? I usually use scotch-brite to clean the stainless.

[Farrar]

I clean the stainless with Windex and occasionally liquid Bar Keeper's Friend. #2613's Hervey stripes are hanging on fine for several years now, except for in one area of the right rear QP where it looks like it may be letting go. It does get really dirty back there and the car has been washed maybe twice in the last three years so I'm not surprised.