Well it is still Friday night here and after ingesting a late repast of shrimp and mini crackers(salted)(must be my childhood experience with the no-meat-on-Fridays syndrome)and recuperation from a long day of so-called retirement,I was sitting here reading over some posts and came across one requesting ideas for pinstriping on a 1960(I think) Buick. I had responded that I didn't think the car would really benefit from the addition of pinstriping and I guess he took my advice.It got me to thinking along those lines. I have been asked many times as to what I think would look good striping-wise on a particular car. Sometimes I will make suggestions as to the amount and possible color combinations and other times I will try and discourage someone from putting them on at all. Let's face it folks;some cars just are not meant to be adorned. I have had a couple of friends both of whom built beautiful chopped 50 Mercurys.One is old school styled with skirts and flipper hubcaps on the front and very little chrome painted a beautiful metallic blue. He asked me what I thought about striping on it and I dissuaded him from putting anything on it.He agreed saying he just wanted to confirm his thoughts. I had previously done some work on a chopped 50 Ford convertible he built.He initially wanted only to cover up a small area where the door handles had been removed.He stated he didn't want much because he really didn't like striping. Long story short I wound up striping most of the car inside and out and under the hood.Sometimes you just can't figure people out. The other one was a gorgeous black 50 coupe that had as the only chrome the bumpers,grille,and a shortened side spear.It had no skirts but rather polished American 5 spokes.It has one of the most beautiful black paint jobs I've ever seen and he approached me about doing 1950's style striping on it.Needless to say he was quickly talked out of that! So what is the point of all this rambling? Simply this: When you are approached to do a striping job,do you think out in advance what the final result might look like? Or do you simply get out the brush and start adding lines in all of the traditional areas? Do you talk with the customer about what colors he might like to have on the car? If he is undecided,do you offer a couple suggestions and maybe even offer to try a couple on the car so he can see what it looks like? If he wants his dashboard striped,do you ask if he has ever driven a car with striping on the upper dash which can be a HUGE distraction while driving due to the double imaging effect brought on by the laminated gl***? Do you try and talk a customer out of doing something in particular if you feel that it wouldn't enhance the vehicle? The eason I am asking these questions is that I have found if you use this approach with customers your business will proliferate even(and maybe because of the fact)though you may talk them out of striping.Customers realize that if your goal is to make their vehicle look better even if it means not adding striping will go a long way to establishing your reputation. Just throwing some ideas out there for you to digest and comment on.Please feel free to do so.
Several years back a custom painter named "Molly" ( Roland Sanders) called and said that he'd just painted a concept Riviera for the Buick guys at GM. He said that THEY wanted it pinstriped and could I help out . When they brought the car over , it was a beautiful dark pearl blue w/ a camel colored Recaro interior. After seeing how clean and simple it looked , I told them that I thought it looked great and that the pinstriping would'nt improve the look , it would just make it look differant . The end result was not to stripe it but it did lead to a long and enjoyable business relationship with Molly and several SEMA projects throughout the years . Not everything is about making $$$$
I remember walking around a cruise-in with good friend and great pinstriper and as we walked round he pointed out several different jobs. Never once critical of the quality of the work but he did point out that some of the work did nothing to improve the cars look. In fact there was a really nice T that he had turned down the job as the guy wanted it way overdone and according to him it needed very little to really make it outstanding. Well the owner found someone to do what he wanted and it was truly lets say interesting. Funny thing though was that the owner came over and asked "what we thought of it ?". All Al could say was it looks as he understood your vision and made it happen. That left him with an ear to ear grin. He did a couple months later come in to have his Harley done.
You have to decide if you want to be a businessman or an artist.. You may have to put your true feelings aside and just do as the customer asks.. I do agree with you that a lot of cars shouldn't be striped and most need LESS rather than more......
s**** believe that what safari is thinking and doing is that by giving his honest opinion to a client it might not pay off today it does reap not only in goodwill and establishes a much greater and continuing profitable relationship. Not to mention that every job that leaves his shop whether done well or not is a rolling billboard for his business. And that old line about the customer is always right is pure bunk. If you need proof of that check around and see if you find any satisfied Yugo customers.
Striping is one of those areas that I give some general idea what I like, and let the artist free.......of course you need to pick a good artist!!!
I agree with Safari, if the striping doesn't add to the car, then walk away. Businessman or artist, that is the right decision. Unless, of course, you need the money.
I agree^^^ with you.. All I'm saying is; He has to decide if he wants to make money at it or just do cars how he wants.. Business or art.....
I've also gotten farther with some people by pointing out that stripes wont help their car, and others by showing how some stripes would totally finish the look of the car. Gotta be able to make that call
The car dictates the job to me.A guy I knew cobbled together a r*T piece of **** truck(competent engineering and safe brakes and ***embly)but the body was horrible. The metal had heavy rust and was ground down enough that DP tinted primer would stick to it. On top of all that,they wanted Pink stripes for the gal who'd drive the heap. Oh well,good practice? You cannot polish a turd no more than you can desire to produce good work on one? No more ****py cars or Pink stripes. On the other side of the coin,a friend wanted his T Bucket(a killer nice car,fine construction and detail) done in a 70's style and the job,though hard to pull turned out beautifully.The job was a challenge and the end result made both of us happy.
I would have thought as any business you talk to your customers , advise and sometimes may have your artist license slightly restricted. You might not even want to put your name to somethings. I've seen some stripers though act like demi-gods about what they'll do and think it's an insult to even try and advise them. End of the day if i'm paying for something I'm one that calls the shots. I let some so called master striper loose on my car 4 years ago and didn't call the shots. The striping was average to be kind, the colors were awful and the design did nothing for the lines of the car. Thats why i took it up myself at a hobby level. Glad i did as i really enjoy doing it. I don't see anything wrong in giving an artist some guidelines and ideas on what you like. Thats part of the process, agreeing on what you want and what the artist feels would work. Dan
Some interesting responses.To clarify things a bit: First of all I have always considered pinstriping and lettering to be a "profitable hobby" rather than a full time job although for a lot of years I was painting 5 nights a week and weekends as well.My regular job for many years was working in the parts department of a dealership first as a counterman and eventually becoming the manager.One sort of fostered the other as the salesman would ask me to stripe a new car for them essentially to close a sale.Other dealers got onto this idea and for about 7 years I would work my day job and then hustle off to another dealership to stripe cars.Most of the time my weekly earnings for striping greatly exceeded my regular salary but the medical benefits were excellent and in those days of raising a family that was as important as how much your salary was. More importantly I have always enjoyed creating designs and was always open to try something new and different.There were a few restrictions I adhered to:I never painted anything that could be considered ****ographic in nature(although I have been asked more than a few times to do so)and I will not paint any copyrighted image unless it is either with permission or is for a charitable event.Just my feelings. As for painting something I do not consider will enhance the look of a particular vehicle,I will do two things:First I will try and dissuade someone from having it done and explain why I feel it won't look right and 2:If they absolutely insist on having it done anyway,I will suggest a name or two of someone who is equally capable of doing the work.I.m not trying to come off as an elitist;I just would rather not do a job that I'm not comfortable doing. There is another scenario I haven't touched upon;that being a customer who;no matter what you do is not satisfied.Fortunately those people are few and far between. This is one of the reasons before I take on a job I will discuss it with the customer in detail.This way it not only allows me to get an idea of what he is looking for but whether he can be satisfied at all.Saves a lot of h***le on both ends. As to the question of whether I want to be a business man or an artist:Maybe a little of both but I guess I lean toward being an artist first.I'm at a point in my life when making a ton of money is not a high priority for me.As long as I can make enough to keep the wolves away from the door I'll be happy.
I think 99.9% of cars can benefit from striping, but it just needs to be the right stripe or colour for the car. A beautifully done car in a dark red or maroon would look good with a bit of striping done in a slightly lighter shade of red, so that 20 feet away you wouldn't even know it was there, but would look horrible with white or yellow because all of a sudden the striping sticks out and is overbearing. I think that's something that's "learned" with experience and no book or video is going to give you that. Younger stripers today need to take the time to realize that their job is to "enhance" the vehicle...not just put one of their "designs" in an empty spot on a car. Usually if I talk someone out of putting something on a car it's because they can't tell where that fine line is between not enough and too much. Or they want to combine too many different ideas where on would do just fine.
The Jalopy Journal
