Pinstripers...Is it a Hobby or a Business?

I've been wondering how many stripers, custom painters and auto artists do it for a living or just a hobby? I see a lot of people getting in on the action and curious which direction they are taking...pro or fun.

Mikey
www.MikeysPinstriping.com

 

well long story short, double ought design was my business till the economy took a ****, i still work a "real job" doing industrial fab. Now the pinstripin is just extra cash.

 

its just a sideline here. painting signs brings in some extra cash but striping is tough. most are guys i know & they dont seem to want to pay!
its ok thats how it goes. i do get help when needed if im dragin a car out of a shed or a field & i get leads to parts & or cars & old gas pumps so what goes around comes around it all works out!

 

i'd like to do it as a full time job but it's just my hobby right now. i'm still a rookie. can't wait to get more business.

 

Guys I am needing your opinion on a project. The side trim on my 51 car is long gone so I was thinking about getting someone paint it on my car so as it looks like the real deal. I want it to appear to be raised just like the real trim. Is it possible or should I forget it??

Thanks

 

Hey JustFord,Call a goooood airbrusher.

 

i just sling a little paint on what ever my friends will let me mess up ! they're always happy with the results but i never charge , just for fun ! used to be a couple of guys aroud this area that did it for a living , did lots of fire trucks etc. ! i talked to the owner of so cal speed shop las vegas a few years back and was shocked when i asked what he did before he opened the shop , said he made his living as a striper , did lots of dealership cars and such !

 

Thanks for the info.

 

pinstriping hotrods is good extra chash but tough to make it, striping/lettering big rigs is where the big $$ is at

 

I really dont enjoy striping.Its the last thing Id do for a hobby.For me,if Im on the way home from a job and the work I did was not the ABSOLUTE best striping Ive ever done,Im disgusted for the whole night.This mostly happens when I go to a job and the customer tells me that they only have a certian amount of money to spend that wont afford me the opportunity to do the above.

 

I'm not a "pinstriper", but I do stripe for a few bucks here and there....
Same with painting, I do custom paint, but it's just a hobby, to help pay for car parts.

 

i'm from the same area as Chastin, so even if i were to try to make a living i wouldnt be able to compete, but the money isnt why i got into it either.

 

I enjoy it as a hobby, but I've made some money at it!

 

I'm too new at it to make it a living yet. hopefully someday it will work out to be a real job for me. I just started striping and airbrushing so I have a long way go but I keep working at it and hoplefully it will all workout in the end.

 

I'd love to do it for a living, but that's just not reality in this economy. Kind of like tattooing. I did that for 19 years, then the bottom fell out when money got tight. I don't know if I'd call it a business or a hobby. More of a sickness, really. If I could make a living at it in this economy, I'd quit my job, buy a hundred cool brushes and go ape-**** on everything I could find. Unfortunately, I gotta work for the man like everyone else, then stripe on the side for extra cash and parts.

 

Professional pinstriping is being able to walk into a Lexus dealership and run double 1/32 lines in a half hour.Thats where money is made.

 

00 Mack, I did the new car dealer thing for about ten years along with my private clients and car shows. I knew a striper in Houston doing 50-100 cars a day with helpers staying two steps ahead of him preping cars. He was the fastest I'd ever seen, I worked with his bro for a few weeks and sometimes he could do $5000 in a week. There are several stripers in Hiouston with that kind of speed. But after whoring myself out to dealers and acquiring a long list of private customers and 20 car shows with an exclusive, I have not done any dealr work since 1999. Although I did two cars last year for a dealer who wanted custom stripes instead of just two lines, I made them pay me right after I finished because you know how they like to drag it out.

Because I started right out the door in 79 (I was just too dumb to know any better) I never had a real job since and of course we did starve for years and I had a wife (she never worked a steady job) and 3 kids, but I can proudly say that I've survived because I know how to hustle. For me, this really is a great time to be striping. Of course I'm not making the big bucks like I did in the 90's but we eat good, bills are paid, and most of all...no alarm clock. You gotta hustle to survive and then you go...VROOM!!

Mikey
www.MikeysPinstriping.com

 

More of a hobby than a source of income for me

 

I'm just a rookie striper too, just started less than a year ago, but I still make a few bucks here and there from friends. But i do it because i enjoy it as a hobby.

 

you've had that happen too...? nothing worse than when i hate the job (usually due to customer input) and they love it......as one of my other striper friends told me....there are just some jobs that do not need a signature.... self employeed since 1990.....striping ,lettering , some of that flooring stuff, some custom paint work , a little body work , dealing in hot rod parts and new parts , blah , blah , blah...( you see a pattern here) whatever it takes to cover the bills.......and the way its been going , you have to be pretty flexible.... doing a overall , color change on a 70's bug vert , old pepsi machine , a couple custom helmets , and some hubcaps for a 58 chev truck.....finished some striping and lettering on a peterbilt this afternoon....again whatever it takes.....

 

thinkin about this i kinda miss the the stock cars (dirt trackers)
it was always a good time. they were all a bunch of crazy fu..ers & they waited until race day it seemed before they were ready for paint. it didnt really pay good & they always wanted alot for a little but it was fun!

NICE new smooth aluminum slab bodies made it nice for painting , sometimes id get an idea on the way over for the style of numbers & thats what they got! get on the floor & their big mean dogs were always hangin out beside me. i painted a mean dogs nose once & lit a fire cracker & ruined another guys dog once too.
some had so many sponsors id be painting all night i think. .....
i remember doing 3 cars a day once in awhile & id be all over town.

one group was NEVER ready, DIS-FUNCTION-AL!! they would be puttin in a rear end while i was painting or startin the car all the time it was crazy KAOS! they were the most fun though & they won alot so they were freebies i just became a sponsor on their car every year

vinyl is what they want now. someone punches it in a computer & they take it over & stick it on & then think they are artists!

 

Ya know, you may be disgusted, but as long as the customer is happy, that's what's important...... Artists are their own worst critic.
I've stepped away from my work and not been 100% sold on it, as I know where the "inaccuracies" are, but the customer loves it, as they can't do it themselves.....it doesn't hurt that I'm pretty cheap and am happy to do it.

 

I have been pinstriping for a business and only income for over 25 years.

 

Keep it as a Hobby. You will be happy, have fun and it won't be work!!!

 

the late model guys never appreciated the extras....but the bomber guys would go on for days about all the extra little stuff you'd do....seemed like i was always lettering the car when it was being scaled.....night or day....didn't matter , seemed like it was always being scaled. can't tell ya how many times i heard ...now this isn't going to mess you up is it...?
it was fun , but go old after a couple years...i do a couple cars a year now....back in 94/95/96 ... did something like 60 or 70 different cars ...and nothing like getting called at midnight to finish a car , so they could leave to go to florida for speedweek.... now that i think about it , i did go out at 4 am to finish one once........

 

I've always considered it a,"profitable hobby" since I first picked up a brush around 1955.I did my first car in 1957 and haven't stopped yet.

In the 1970's and 80's it was literally a second career but I always had my,"real job" to fall back on even though I was working 6 nights a week at it for an obscenely long time.A severe back injury put a stop to that for nearly 6 months.

Since I officially retired 3 years ago(actually in 1993 due to health issues),it has again become a full time affair.I still enjoy painting very much and just this past weekend attended a panel jam where I got at least 8 hours sleep all weekend.I take great comfort in knowing there are at least 70 people in this world as crazy as I am!

Can you do it as a business in 2009? No doubt;a lot of people are doing just that.Does it take awhile to get a business going like that? Undoubtedly.Took me nearly 10 years after moving to Michigan and starting literally from scratch although if the truth be known I wasn't really looking to start another career.

 

In California there is an over population of stripers. I live in a small town and i know like 6 people who stripe. The only ones I know of that are making a living are the people who have made a name for themselves on Tv, Magazines and Striping at Car Shows.

It's not a hobby For me. It's Art, I express myself through striping. Cool thing is people want me to adorn their **** every once in awhile. I get paid From Money to Car Parts,alcohol,food, and whatever else I want that someone has.
I hate doing it at shows, My favorite place to stripe is at home in my garage with my radio and no one around.

 

I have buddy that would be a regualr customer if he ever paid me.......When you stripe you see every little mistake you make. I get upset if things don't go as smooth as possible with a stripe job. My friend once told me he didn't mind because he knows what striping is. And that is an Art that is done by a human by hand and on the fly....always stuck with me.
Now I just think to myself if they want perfect stripes the can buy a sticker. hahaha.

 

Hobby for me, (but I would like it to be more)... just some extra cash now and then..

 

Seems like a lot of you are doing it as a hobby. I'm jealous. All ya'll who are doin' it as a hobby or strivin' to keep the bills paid with it, keep the faith.

Mikey
www.MikeysPinstriping.com
Hustlin', Fightin', Survivin'...VROOM!