DIY Striping tips needed! Please!!!!!

I don't have any personal experience striping, but I know people and have seen DIY jobs that looked pretty bad. Might want to see what other's say, but I would strongly consider paying a prof to do it. Just my thoughts

You might wanna start by claying the car and then use lots of water and dawn solution to float those in place. But you should get some other advice before taking the plunge. Good luck and show us pics.

The appearance of your ride is not the place to try and save a few hundred bucks in my opinion. Pay a professional or better yet, pay a professional painter to put stripes on .

you can use painters tape to mark the edges/sides of were the stripes are placed, the only problem that you you'd encounter in my opnion is the bubbles other than that if u mark the edges/sides with tape so u can align the strips, there shouldn't be other problems, get some friend to help you will most likely need a whole day, (im not a pro, but this seems like a good way to do it)

I had my stripes put on professionally and even they make mistakes and screw up a stripe. Good thing with that is that they pay to replace the stripe. If you screw up the stripe it's out of your pocket.

Tips from a grahics company:

How to Apply Car Graphics

Car vinyl and graphic details are something we all know and love. Nothing screams “look at me” more than a car fully stacked out with awesome vinyl. If you have a supped up ride or a car that you like to race, nothing beats that fast and the furious feeling that you’ll get from car graphics and vinyl.

Contrary to what you may think, installed your graphics kit is an easy thing to do. Before you get started, you’ll need the following tools:


Sharp X-acto knife or utility knife
Squeeze and a spray bottle
Heat gun or hair dryer
Someone to help you

Although someone to help you isn’t required, it will certainly make the process go much faster – and much smoother. You can do it yourself without a problem; so if you can’t find any help it shouldn’t really matter. Either way you go, you’ll have the best look for your car in no time at all.

When you have all of your tools together, follow these steps to install your graphics on your car:

1. Fill the spray bottle with distilled water and add a few drops of your favorite dish soap. Use some caution, making sure not to use too much soap.

2. Clean the surface of the vehicle with alcohol where the graphics are going to be placed. The cleaner you get the surface, the better off you’ll be.

3. Pre-fit the graphics and vinyl to know how it will fit and where you want it to be placed. You can mark where the graphics will go with tape or a grease pencil to aid in the proper placement of the graphics.

4. Using the soapy water solution thoroughly wet down the area of the vehicle where the graphics are going to be applied.

5. Go ahead and peel the backing paper off of the graphic as you spray down the sticky side on the graphic.

6. Place the graphics on the vehicle to make sure that there is plenty of soapy solution on the vehicle and the graphics.

7. Now, squeegee the water out of the graphic by using strokes from the center to the outside. Take your time, and be sure to do a thorough job. In the end, time taken here will shine through.

8. After a few minutes, you should spray down the transfer tape with the soapy solution and then use the squeegee to carefully rub it into the tape.

9. Starting in a corner, begin to slowly remove the tape at a sharp angle. Use caution and be patient to keep from pulling the graphics up.

10. Now, you should take the time to squeegee out more bubbles. Trim all of the seems such as window moldings, door edges, fender well openings, etc. You can use the hair dryer or heat gun to help to tuck the edges in and work out the bubbles. This will help to cure the graphics, although care must be taken not to use excessive heat. Excessive heat of any type will distort the graphic. Any bubbles that remain can be popped with a pin or X-acto knife.

11. For the best cure, you should leave your ride indoors for 24 hours and refrain from washing or waxing it. Also, you shouldn’t drive it in harsh weather until the graphics have had time to cure.

It might be necessary to check the edges for adhesion for the first few days or so. Use the hair dryer or heat gun as necessary to rub down the edges with your finger as you apply heat to it.

If you follow the above steps, you’ll have the graphics in place before you know it. Even if you have no experience, you’ll do just fine. Once you apply graphics to your vehicle the first time, it’ll become second nature to you. After you see the results, you’ll probably find yourself wondering why you never invested in them sooner!

Here's a thread from 2005Stang.com on installing a Baltimore kit.

http://2005stang.com/viewtopic.php?t=679&highlight=baltimore

btw- Baltimore's stripes are 10" wide with a 2" gap