How I pinstriped my 33 Tudor

[Doctor's Ford]

I did the pinstriping on my 33 Tudor this weekend. I could not find a similar process description in other posts and thought that those planning to do the same job will find the comments helpful.

It seems restorers usually do the job using a special brush to apply enamel pinstriping paint. Apparently the most common paint brand in the USA is OneShot. I quickly discarded the idea because I had to mix colors to obtain the Tacoma Cream needed for my car and I am totally clueless on how to do that. OneShot is sold in all base colors but no information on which ones to mix to obtain the needed color and after visiting several paint shops with this question I could not get an answer.

My next option was to use the same paint that I have already used to paint my wheels. It is a PolyUrethane-based Tacoma Cream color and I have enough left after I did my wheels several months ago. It is not as thick as enamel and not good to apply with brush so I asked my painter for help and he was willing to come over the weekend with his spray gun and compressor to work with me to finish this job.

I have a kit of Pinstriping stencils from a company kwown as Finesse www.finessepinstriping.com . This company sells stencils with the Pinstripes pattern for every classic american car. I bought kit F-43 which has 3 adhesives stencils covered by a transparent layer. The stencils are separated so that they will let you paint two 1/32 inches stripes separated by 3/32 inches between them, just as the original pattern. You can use a brush to apply the paint or a spray gun as I did.





First step is to clean the area well and gently sand the clear coat with 2000 grit just enough to favour adherence of the new paint. Then apply the Finesse stripe with no interruptions all around the car beginning on one end of the hood. On the gaps between hood and cowl and on the door gaps you just keep covering with the tape to make sure there is a continuous sharp line all around the car. Next 4 photos show this process. The most difficult part is to cut the middle stencil to create a spear-shaped end on the front end of the hood. I had practice several times before I was happy with it.












Then I removed the clear cover leaving the 3 stencils attached to the car as shown in this photo.



Next begins the masking process to protect the rest of the paint from accidentally being sprayed. I put enought newspaper around that you can read the entire news just walking around my car!







My painter applying PU Tacoma cream.




Waited about an hour and applied a couple of layers of clear coat and then removed all the masking paper. Here we start removing the masking tape on the edges of the Finesse striping.




Removing the top masking tape leaving the 3 stencils still attached and now painted.






Next the top and the bottom stencils removed and here I am removing the center stencil to leave the pin striping visible.





Edges in gaps are very sharp



This is how the ends look like at the front of the hood, to me this was the most difficult part





The R side not as even line as the L but still very acceptable.



And this is how the final job looks like. I am totally happy with it. It took an entire day, two of us, very tedious preparation and application of the Finesse stripe. Everything depends on it so you better get a lot of patience, cool drinks, good weather, no interruptions, etc, etc and it will look just like original. If you have a steady hand for a brush AND you got the right color in enamel paint probably will be as good. Others may have different approaches, I just wanted to show in a single post the way of doing it with the Finesse stripes plus a spray gun. Manuel