Satin/matte black stripes - painted or vinyl?

I know the question of painted vs vinyl has been asked numerous times, but I couldn't find a thread on the satin / matte color. I'm looking to get the Shelby type stripes on my black '06 GT, and I really love the look of the satin / matte black stripes on a gloss black car. I was planning to get them painted, but after doing some searching on the web, people have said that painted satin stripes are really hard to clean, and if you rub on them, you will get shiny spots. As this is my daily driver, and I can see have to rub to get bugs off the front bumper, I'm wondering if I would have better luck with black satin vinyl. The painted stripes would be a "Hot Rod black" or "Rat Rod black" single stage urethane - .SEM Products - Catalog is a possible option. Eastwood also has a kit. Does anyone have any experience or suggestions on this?

No one has any experience??? Can anyone make a suggestion of a different site or forum that I could check out? I'm looking to do this in the next 3 days...

seanwahler said:

hey i dont know if i could be any help cause i am looking to do the the same exact thing with my black 06 GT. have you had any luck so far? and from what i know i think vinyl is better then paint and alot cheaper too.

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I ended up getting them painted. I have an uncle who used to paint show cars, so minimal labor charge, and I used the SEM Hot Rod black paint. Finished it in time for a July 4th show. It turned out great. I've limited my driving now to nice days, but so far haven't had any problems with the matte black. I'm getting ready to store it for the winter, and used blue painter tape to mask off the stripes when I waxed the rest of the car. Took a little longer, but keeping the wax off the matte stripes is important to keeping it a matte finish. I think the vinyl would require less care, but I am really happy with the painted stripes turned out.