DIY stripes, easier and cheaper than factory?

[rocsteady]

So I think it would depend on color, type, and exactly how much vinyl one would need, but I'll measure later for exact. Mostly I'm thinking of making the stripes yourself and the ease of application if done this way.

Key is the use of "knifeless tape" which is like a piece of dental floss or fishing line that comes in a piece of very thin tape so you can form the shape you want on the car (pulling it up and replacing endlessly without fear of damage you would have if trying to place pre-made stripes) then place the vinyl over top, then pull the "knifeless tape" up and it becomes the cutting blade and makes perfect cuts of your original vinyl. Would be a snap to move this stuff around and line up your stripes with none of the trial and error with a four foot piece of expensive pre-made stripe that you have to worry about messing up. I installed pre-made stripes from stripesource on my current GT350 and it went okay but very difficult to get lined up properly, in my opinion. With this method, one could use any color that comes on a sheet of vinyl and you could make the stripe as wide or as narrow as you choose. Could make any shape you'd like actually.

A while back I wanted to make a decal for the hood of my Tundra and used this method. This is the way I'd do it for stripes when I redo them on the Shelby in the Spring. Described it here in a post on a Tundra forum:

Decided to use the vinyl that I had left from wrapping the rear bumper ends to do the hood graphic. Was wondering how I was going to make an accurate pattern when I remembered watching someone on YouTube use 3M knifeless tape to cut their vinyl on a complete vehicle wrap. After getting that figured out, it was a snap. Took about an hour and that was with stopping to help a coworker put some air in a tire with my tiny portable compressor.

• cleaned the hood
• outlined the area with the knifeless tape (you can see the green "outline" I made. Very easy to pull up and put back to get exactly where you want it
• cut a piece of the vinyl slightly larger than the area
• pulled off the passenger side backing first and started to smooth it out
• pulled the rest of the backing and finished getting out the trapped bubbles
• ensured that it was down on both sides of the knifeless tape
• pulled up the tape filament, making the cut
• removed the excess vinyl from the outside
• removed the excess left from the knifeless tape
• **Remember to remove the other half of the knifeless tape that's under the edge of your vinyl (when you pull it up, it splits the tape apart and leaves it behind)
• finished smoothing out and ensuring that the edges were down
• cut the part that runs along the windshield and folded up and under the rear edge of the hood

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[MiamiGT350]

Looks great! Thanks for the write-up and photos!

 

[hunter7389]

Not often i see something that hasnt been done, I like it!

 

[rocsteady]

Looking at the car today and the stripes are growing on me, think I might leave them. However, I did want to add clear PPF to the whole hood and I have the clear PPF sheet already. So, I might apply my idea anyway, except instead of using the knifeless tape to make stripes, I may just outline the stripes with it, lay the clear vinyl over top of the whole hood, and use the tape to cut the clear around the stripes. This way, the stripes are protecting what's underneath them and the clear will protect everything else/the white portions of the hood. It's only 38 degrees out now so I'll be waiting for warmer weather to give it a go.

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