The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Cab pin stripe

I want to paint the stripe around my cabs belt line on my 47 3100 thrift master. What works best for brushes? paint? Thanks Troy

With a sharp eye and a very steady hand, the body shop applied a tape strip measuring 1/4th or 3/16th inch around the belt line. It has survived on there since 2005 and still looks sharp.
Jerry

One Shot pin striping paint is what I think most people would recommend. It comes in many different colors which can be blended together if their stock colors will not match and it's oil based enamel so any mistakes can be easily wiped off and redone. Eastwood's carries it as well as any good local art supply store. Eastwoods also carries a roller ball system for applying the paint but it's pretty expensive in addition to the special pin stripe brushes the professionals use. Speaking of professionals, you may want to price having one do it for you. I had my cab done for less than $200.

great question. how neat where the factory pin stripes applied? the factory stripe (?) on mine is hand painted and does not have consistency around the entire cab. I do believe it is factory applied. it is a yellowish color on Forrester green 1952.

I've been noticing that some trucks are striped in the center of the belt line, While others are down toward the bottom. Don't know if its a year thing or just the different people doing the stripeing?

Like Huck I had mine professionally done for $200.
His method was 1 shot enamel sign paint. Top quality stuff.
Interesting to me was his methods. He started by going all around the truck on center of the belt line with 3/4" masking tape. This was to be used as a guide line only. Then he used his specialty pin stripe brush and One shot, and carefully striping all around.visually following the tape as a guide and site line only. He actually never touch the Tape with his brush. He wiped and painted for about 1 hour.
I think if you consider his expertise, labour, & materials it was well worth it.
Not sure if I would go out and buy all these professional supplies and painted myself for $200

I had a lot of striping and the door art done on my truck for $300. Sometimes it's best to get a professional, and this is one of those times. Amateur striping is easy to spot.

The original pin-stripes were supposedly done by hand.

The width of the stripe differed - people have posted photos of 1/8" to 3/16" inch pinstripes.

If you look close, you can make out the 1/4" and 1/16"
parallel stripes that highlight the scallops on my
Pitts. There was something like 500 feet total of
double striping on it:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/115679200/original
I did this my self by using five strips of 3m Fine Line masking tapes:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/153945428/large

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/...0S4K7000000_nid=GS8G5J9L9Vbe2875VTTP9Sgl

On this particular paint job I first laid down a 1/4" spacer
tape following the scallop, then next to it the 1/4" stripe
that to be the 1/4" black stripe, then a 3/16 spacer followed
by the 1/16" tape and finished off with another 1/4" tape. I
peeled out the 1/4" and 1/16" tapes to expose the base paint
then using a good camel hair brush and 1-Shot lettering enamel
laid down the black strips. As soon as possible, before the
paint has a chance to set up you pull the three masking tapes.
And there you have it, no need to spend two or three hundred
dollar with a pro striper. $25 or $30 worth of supplies and
you've got your belt line looking like Von Dutch himself laid it
down.
A Kafka stripping brush is only good in the hands of someone
with thousands of hours of experience and the Beugler pinstripers
are troublesome and require a guide, unless you can stop your
heart from pulsing blood out to your stripping hand. I've had
brushes and a striping tool for half a century and was never
happy with the tool and never could get more than a couple
inches of even paint laid down with a brush. This is the striping
tool that I've used which is ok for a straight line:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/154490555
But the fine line masking tape is the only way to go
for us amateurs.
Denny Graham
Shaky handed in Sandwich, IL

Here is a picture of an original paint 49 GMC. 49 GMC Pinstripe As you can see, it definitely looks hand done and not all that professional. Here is also a picture of my 52 GMC I just finished. It looks a little better than the 49 but still hand done. Notice that the stripe is not centered on the belt but about 1/3 the way up. 52 GMC Pinstripe

3M makes a tape for painting single or multi line/spacing called Fine Line.

If it's not what Denny used it allows for the same technique.

The factory stripe on my '46 was not very professional. The painter that striped my truck said that you could tell it was done in a hurry, as it was variable thickness all the way around the cab.

On my Suburban, we used the 3M striping tape that CASO shows - 1/8" was the width of the original (thinner than any other stripes I have seen).

Well I guess all the time I spent on my reply went down the
dumper cuz I did a copy and past on the wrong picture. The
stripes that I did WERE done with 3m Fine Line Masking tapes.
Thought that's what I was pasting into the reply.

I'll get this right, sooner or later. Yes Caso they do
also make the Fine Line Pull Outs. That's not what I
used on the airplane. They're hard to work with if
not impossible where there is much of a curve. They
are fine for a straight run like down the side of a
vehicle that may have a very gentle curve. By laying
it up in individual tapes you can bend around some
very sharp or compound corners as you can see in the
corners of the scallops. I don't think the Pull Out
masking tapes would work very good on the AD at the
cowl corners.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL