Rally stripes - Vinyl vs. Paint

[Yellojacket]

Where in MD are you? maybe one day i can bring my car past and you can check out my painted on stripes. I think paint is the only way to go...but it did cost $1200+ but they shop did a very good job.

[charwen4RS]

I dropped mine at the dealer this morning for painted stripes.

[Musclebee]

Have painted on stripes, my husband did them at our body shop 2 days after we got the car. I love the painted on stripes would not have any but painted stripes.

[ddunerider]

paint them!!

[papabearcamaro]

Painted...Did not even consider vinyl after seeing a few cars on dealer lots that had vinyl stripes peeling.

[hot_rod]

Paint them....

[Richochet83]

Originally Posted by Yellojacket

Where in MD are you? maybe one day i can bring my car past and you can check out my painted on stripes. I think paint is the only way to go...but it did cost $1200+ but they shop did a very good job.

I'm in Upper Marlboro, MD. But damn $1200...If I pay that they better have my car picture perfect.

[caverman]

Like I said....Pros and Cons to both. You just have to weigh out the issues.

If you know your not going to change the color or style, know of a good painter, and are willing to spend $1,000 - $1,500 then I would go painted.

IMO...even vinyl needs to be put on by a professional. If done correctly and with good quality vinyl they shouldn't peel up. Worst case scenario if they did they should be able to be removed and re-done.

I like the idea of clear coating over the vinyl other than if for some reason you ever needed to have body work done then I'm sure it would be a PIA to try to remove the clear and vinyl. You would have to use a sander to go through the clear and surely it wouldn't be pretty to try to sand off vinyl.

I've already put on 3 coats of wax over my vinyl and I'll continue to wax at least once a year (I would do twice a year if mine sat outside). This should help protect the stripes from peeling, or fading, or cracking.

I've heard that the vinyl will fade way before cracking and obviously a solid light color like white or silver is not going to fade nearly as fast as a metalic dark color.

I think if you find a good vinyl guy you would be suprised at how well it can be done. I showed my painter (who normally charges $1,500 for stripes) my vinyl this last weekend when we were at a get together and he liked them so much that he wanted the vinyl guys number because he has plenty of cars that get vinyl work done.

With yours being an LT and not having the mail slot then you should be able to find someone that can add vinyl correctly. The mail slot is not easy and I had one guy who gets alot of praise around my area turn me down because he did not want to deal with the mail slot. I then found the guy that did mine and he had 3 other vinyl installers watch as he did my mail slot so that they could learn how to do them properly. To bad you're not in the DFW, TX area.

Here is one thing to consider though. If you do decide to go vinyl and for some reason you decide you didn't like it or that you wanted to go painted, you can have them removed and then painted. You will be out possibly $400 or so but you wouldn't be out nearly as much as painting them on.

Agian.....I paid $480 out the door for custom stripes over a mail slot, side gills, and visor covers.

[Jacqs]

My paint job is $6500 and there was not a chance in hell I was going to put a vinyl sticker on the paint. I had mine painted on. Which enabled me a better variety of paint to get the right "look". I can't imagine that pink with any other sticker color on there. At the beginning they tried to persuade me to do vinyl - for simplicity - letting me know vinyl has come a long way. But I insisted.

The vinyl was put on by the dealership so I had them take that off the sticker since it wasn't something I really wanted. I wasn't charged for removing it either, all paint came off the car before the pink went on.