The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Stick on pen stripping

How durable is the stick on pen stripping. I used the stick on letters for my tailgate and they have held up great.

Stick on pin stripes on my mom's 1995 F-150 still look like new and are not peeling off.

I use self-adhesive pin strip in the mid seventies and it held up real well, don't know anything about current products.

If it is the stuff made by 3M or Cal-Stripe, it will be ok. I used some on my truck and between 1977 and 2020 it never looked any different than it did when new. I think I still have some of the roll I bought back then. Silver and maybe 2.5mm wide. A friend used some generic stuff and it was horrible. Back in the 70s (and maybe it is still offered) there was a masking tape product you applied and then removed the top layer. It left two pieces of masking tape spaced evenly apart and you could take pinstriping paint and a small brush, paint the exposed part and have a genuine painted pinstripe. You could also get that in dual line (one thicker one thinner) that some guys used on wheels, but I watched a pinstripe specialist do twin stripes on 4 wheels in no time at all. I doubt I could ever do this, but he had a helper jack one wheel up at a time while he rotated them and carefully painted both the stripes at once with his other hand. His brush had two long thin sets of brush hairs...one made a thin and one was wider, set about 3/8 inch apart. No tape and he didn't make a single mistake. It was amazing to watch.

Sounds like I will give it a try. I think it is 3M but I will confirm.

Mine is 3M going on 22 years now, still looking good. When applying, hold 2 to 3 feet of tape out away, then slowly apply, the longer you keep it, the straighter you can site down it. I went right over the door seams so the stripe would be straight from body across the doors, then sliced and rolled 1/2 on door and 1/2 to the body at each seam. Don't pull so tight you stretch it when trying to keep a straight line. We decal a bunch of school buses every year at work, our painter uses a 50/50 mix of water and alcohol when he puts on decals. It allows for some quick adjustments yet drys really quick. Soapy water also works but takes forever to dry out.