Hot Rods Removing painted on pin stripes

It was the FUMES man!

 

Thanx @Bandit Billy and it's a no mud car too. I did do 1 little swipe of metal glaze to fill a weld spot, maybe the size of a biz card. I've posted these before, here's another view. That door is about 30' away and still a clear image.

No pinstripes were harmed in the finish of this car...

 

^^^^^I see someone pointing at the lack of insulation in the rafters.

 

Have any trouble with birds flying into your doors like they do with windows?

 

Not so far, they get in the shop tho.

 

>>>Was curious what would be the best way to remove painted on pin stripes >>>The pin stripes are a color that sticks out like a sore thumb and doesn’t fit the rest of the car >>>

Ever'body who is anybody doesn't do such a thing. Pinstripes are made to stick out and be noticed.

 

I bought a new Ford in '63 and the dealer was going to sponsor 3 of us. We had all the lettering, etc. painted on the cars and the dealer backed out. Took the car to the body shop, had it all sanded off and repainted. You could still see a shadow of the lettering under the new paint.

 

Was it stripped to bare metal?

 

Did we get the stripes off or changed? Inquiring minds wanna know.

 

I was marking some steel to fab up a floor with a black marker. Now I'm scared all my lines are gonna show thru when I clean it up and paint it. Apparently the molecular structure has been changed and the metal is now altered. I guess "permanent marker" is a serious warning...

 

you think that’s bad, I use a purple sharpie

 

Gee! I've had some permeant marker bleed through paint before. OH, wait... your suppose to clean off the marker? You can't just cover it with primer? Oh...

I can tell you sanding off the marker with a piece of sand paper under your finger can still show through (probably should have cleaned the surface better). If it was all sanded with a hard disc or a flap disc to remove the marker, then the entire area was smooth. A marker doesn't leave much of a film thickness.

I suspect the pinstriping is the same deal. If you sand off the pinstriping along with the surrounding metal with paper that has a soft pad under it, then follow through with the next paint job, the metal isn't going to be flat. The differences in the metal surface will reflect the paint film thickness where the paint was higher under the striping. Hence ghost pinstriping (or old lettering). The sanding with a pad under the paper just takes the same level of material off the entire surface. It will take forever to level out the metal with a padded sandpaper.

You need to sand it all with a hard disc or flap disc (something without a pad under the paper) until all evidence of the striping is gone, then the entire surface needs to be sanded again, or the metal isn't flat. When the pinstriping is taken off with a sanding disc until you can't see either the pinstriping nor the metal edge, then the entire area gets sanded, the metal is flat.

Think about it. Even if the pinstriping is completely removed with a chemical remover, the original paint under the striping is the paint thickness higher then the surrounding faded paint. If its all sanded with a sand paper on a pad, you are not removing that extra thickness from the top surface, you are still leaving the thickness difference intact in the bare metal. If you just used padded sandpaper to remove both the pinstriping and the surrounding paint, the height difference in surface metal that was under the striping is even greater and that difference has now transferred to the bare metal.

I got no letters behind my name, not even close to being a professional body guy, just some smock that has screwed up a lot of stuff over the years and had to figure out how to fix it.

 

I've always used the EASY OFF method. Hard part was gettin' the car through the kitchen door to stuff it in the oven....

 

Sorry for the delay on pics , I spaced it . There’s is a second car I want to remove pinstripes on , it has a nice paintjob ( not sure on what materials of paint were used )
The roadster has white pinstripes , the other car has red pinstripe over a brownish/cream color . I am more concerned with not messing up the paint on the brown car. The roadster paint is old and weathered so it’s not as big of a concern .

 

Here's a method I've used, had my doubts but it did the job for me. Use an electric pencil eraser, just the simple eraser on the end of a pencil. Extremely light abrasive action, use light pressure at first until you get the hang of it. It still left the "ghost" of the stripes. It might even smooth those, but i didn't try that. Try it on a small section first.

 

I had my buffer dude touch up my roadster for an indoor show last fall, he said "please tell me that pinstripe was already like that on the back end". I walked around and yeah, it was gone. Apparently, it isn't too hard to remove them with a buffer.

 

The car with the nicer paint job , red pinstripe .I know some guys love pinstripes they just aren’t for me

 

>>I know some guys love pinstripes they just aren’t for me >>

Yes. I know that too But everybody who is anybody knows pinstripes are where's it's at. 8^)

 

To me that’s a subtle stripe. When I think of pinstripes I think of artistic designs. Around key holes,,etc.

Was just my thought.

 

My red coupe was painted in the '80s with some kind of single stage stuff. It had pinstripes on the body line like your brown car only in purple and blue with a flourish in a few places, ugh. Like you, I'm not into that kind of pinstriping. I used Easy-off in some areas and sanded with 800 or 1200 grit in a couple places. Worked fine, one of the best things I've done to the car. You can still see the ghost on the deck lid if you hold your mouth just right and look very carefully, but who cares?

 

my 41 had neon green, orange & purple pinstripes on it when I got it. tried easy off ended up carefully scraping them off with a razor blade

 

I have spent hours and hours trying to get rid of those damn things so I just tell people have you heard of ghost flames, I then tell them these are ghost pin sripes and are evey expensive to duplicate

 

I just got this one home yesterday and started on removing some of the juvenile pin stripping and lettering. I will be keeping the scallops for now, but the lettering, ghost flames, and spider webs have to come off. So far, lacquer thinner is working. After some of the lettering and cob web paint was removed, I could still see "ghosts". But with a clay rub and then a Meguiar's rub down, all clear. I have more to do, so will post before and after pictures.

 

Easy Off, in the Yellow can. Works well, on Alkyd Enamels.
Might take 2 or 3 applications.

 

A good striper can change that color, to anything you want.

 

Old alkyd enamal (oneshot) on old lacquer.
rubbing compound
Do a test area with easy-off on the lacquer to see if it eats the lacquer or not

.

 

A lot of people recommend an eraser wheel to remove pinstripes



And touching base on the previous mention of things showing back up in new paint jobs.
Whatever the yellow chalk the steel supplier uses to write on the steel with showed up. I cleaned it off prior to using POR-15's chassis cleaner and chassis prep chemicals but you can still see it through the POR-15 paint at certain angles.

 

It won't. We just removed all the stripes off of $200k 35 Packard 12. No worries, no effect on the old lacquer which was done by the restoration crew at Harrahs, likely near 50 years ago. If you miss a spot of oven cleaner on the lacquer it will stain it. You'll see a faded spot when you wash the dried oven cleaner off but have no fear. I spent about 30 seconds with a soft cloth and Meguires 3. Gone, could be a Servpro ad, "Like it never happened." When was this? Why, just last month. Next time I get to it I'll take pictures cuz I know we all like pics