Stripes - Vinyl or Painted

[AndrewE]

Hi all 

What is the normal approach from the factory for stripes - are they painted or vinyl wrap? 

 

The reason for asking is I want to add a continuation stripe on the back panel to match the bonnet / nose stripe so want to know if its better to paint or wrap

[Mucus72]

By default they are vinyl, and pretty nice in my opinion. You can pay extra for painted striped and nose cone stripe. I think its all in the price list on their main web site Andrew.

[Mrp]

Mine are painted along with the nose band.

Mrp

[pugwash]

Mine are vinyl from the factory and do go down the back panel.

[AndrewE]

I am guessing that as mine is a 1998 vintage the likelihood is it will be paint but I should be able to get a vinyl to match

[ChrisC]

OK so word of caution about the factory vinyl strips.   I wanted to change my nose badge from square to round in the Post Build Check, but Caterham are not sure they can match or lineup a replacement nose stripe, instead want to restripe the nose, bonnet and scuttle (including removing the windscreen).   I think that's poor given that I regularly have the nose and rear wings repainted during winter due to stone chips, and star cracks having to restripe each time will become a pain.    

[Mucus72]

Is this he same Caterham that can't drill he two holes for the badge centrally in the bonnet? 

My word of caution is, when I get really old I hope Morgan will make me a car that is really nice. Until then accept trauma. 

[elie boone]

i am a 100% sure 3M or the likes will not accept any liability on colour differences of different badges of their vinyl.

[ChrisC]

where's the like button on this forum ;-)

[elie boone]

CC it only show on the positive site

[Jim 123]

Andrew, from your original query.

If the car has parallel stripes on the bonnet, they will be vinyl if they were done in the factory.  (Visually vinyl is easy to identify as it has a more matt finish than the main body, and if you look at how light reflects from the surface, vinyl has a rougher surface appearance). Factory painted stripes are one piece applications, and unlike vinyl, I believe that the painted stripe carries through on on top of the centre bonnet louvers where vinyl won't stick.

If you are looking to only add a continuation stripe to the rear panel of an existing car, any batch related colour variance due to different vinyl batches will not be discernable.  You should be able to get a sample from the extensive 3M colour range that you can evaluate this against before you buy.

[Garry7]

My white noseband and single stripe are painted - rear panel was not included.

I bought some Halfrauds boy racer striping and cut it to fit - job done.

[AndrewE]

Jim

thanks for getting the thread back on track!

i have a single stripe which is quite reflective - so assume it's paint - it is edged by 4mm/2mm pin stripes

how do I find the paint code?

Although I will look at 3m vinyl colours to see if there is a close match 

Andrew

 

[Jim 123]

Andrew if your stripe covers the centre bonnet louvre, and it isn't lifting or bubbling, it'll be painted.

I'd suggest your easiest option would be to call around either motor factors who supply paint shops with their paint; or ring around local car painters.  You should be able to find one who has a paint manufacturer supplied "colour library".  These are simplisticaly,  a large inventory of sequenced painted cards that you can match against if you take your bonnet or car along.  The bigger paint manufacturers (Glasurit, PPG, or Sikkens etc) continually update their libraries with subtle variants of known paint codes.  This should let you home in on the best match, and then the "colour library" will produce the correct paint mixing formulation you need.

A web search on the paint manufacturers web sites might help you chase down your local distributor or paint shops.