Being your biggest critic is sometimes a good thing.......None of my cars ever have Pinstriping on them...every time I stripe one...before it dries I've decided I don't like it and wash it off.......if I put a stripe on one of mine today, it's just for practice......people ask me why nothing of mine is striped...I tell them I hate Pinstripes....and I guess I do on my own stuff, cause I can never satisfy myself........too old to start worrying about it now...hehehe
I only stripe my own stuff too - and it's never good enough either! I was told to practice on glass because it's so hard to do, plus it's so easy to clean off - just scrape it off with a razor blade. I usally just dip my brush into the paint several times and run it into a small cup to stripe - learn this from an old Roth student - real cool watching him stripe and tell stories about Big Daddy Roth!
First of all you can use 30w non detergent motor oil, auto trans fluid, mineral oil, lard oil, cooking oil or what I use is a good brand of brush oil. Any one of these will work, you don't want to use detergent motor oil because of the chemicals they add to keep a motor clean is bad for the brush hairs. After you are done paint with a brush have three cans or bottles with mineral spirits in them. Wash the brush out in the first can with the dirtyest spirits, wipe dry in rag. Then wash it in the second can, wipe dry. Then the cleanest last. After you wipe it dry, I like to spin the brush between my hands, then oil it a lay it flat. I have been cleaning and storing brushes like this and have ones that are over 40 years old and they are still soft and still work. When you are getting the paint to start striping, take it out of the can with a mixing stick or small spoon. Also put paint in a small cup, never work out of the can of paint. Because the EPA made 1-Shot that the lead out of the paint and they replace it with modern resins, they recommend not using mineral spirits to thin 1-Shot. Sometimes it will separate from the paint after you make a line. I have had this happen to me and when I talked to them this is what they said. Use their high or low temp thinners along with Penetrol flow agent only. You can also thin with turps, but I don't like the smell. I use a little Penetrol in my paint first, then depending on air temp and if I'm working inside or out I add High Temp to slow drying or Low Temp to speed drying. Also you can never practice too much. The more you do the sooner you will improve. Don't forget to practice straight lines along with the curves. Work on trying to make the lines the same thickness for the length of the whole line. Again PRACTICE, PRACTICE and more PRACTICE. Hope this helps, if you have any other questions you can PM me anytime, RJ
I have heard of the tape trip, thanks. I am going to Symco in August, I hope to spend some time talking to a pinstriper there. If you are going and wanna talk about pinstriping look me up, I would love to learn something new I plan on being there for Friday and Saturday.
I had my '32 at a rod run in the '70's and some guy came up and asked if I wanted it striped (cheap). He showed me a few pics and they looked OK so I said go for it. First thing he did was pull out a roll of masking tape and ran it all the way down the side. Scared me to death. I thought he was going to run 2 strips of tape and fill in between them. As it turned out, he used the tape as a guide for his finger so he could make a long straight pull. Turned out great.
http://www.bobbondart.com/ https://smartflix.com/store/video/749/Wizards-Pinstriping-Basics Just a couple of web sites. I did the "Wizards 10,000 lines" method. I had a stack of metal shelves I practiced on. Everything in my garage is striped. I have also tried coping ones I've seen on FAS here on the HAMB. I have striped friends cars for free but doubt I will ever do it for money. Because of illness, I haven't striped in a long time but did the other day and am ready to get back in to it. Enjoy and have fun, also keep your first stuff so you can see how far you get.