The Art of Pinstriping Part II - Hot Licks - Tech

Another thing that Styles brought to our attention was how a right-handed person situates themselves versus a left-hander. A right-hander working on the passenger side of a vehicle will start from the front of the car and work toward the rear. Conversely, a left-hander would be more comfortable starting at the rear of the vehicle working toward the front. This technique comes into play when doing design work as well.

Highlighting a vehicle's factory body lines is a great way to make them stand out ; how extensively you follow that suggestion is a matter of personal preference. Some like a lot of accents, some just a few on the most prominent or distinctive areas.

When it comes to designs or embellishments the options are endless. Depending upon one's tastes they can be minor or major.

Here is an example of what a few licks will do to an otherwise plain headlight bucket, or a front section of a frame horn.

The decklid becomes home to lots of artistic striping designs and, because of their large area, can accommodate both small or rather expansive and detailed work. Styles always recommends starting a design by finding and marking a panel's centerline so that, whatever the design, it ends up uniform centered. This can be done using a bit of Fine Line tape or a marking pencil.

After finding and marking a centerline, Styles decided to start his design with a wide centerline as the focal point. He did this by masking the shape and filling the expanse with striping enamel.

To that centerline he then began applying some embellishment to either side. A novice would be well advised to create these embellishments with a marking pencil so as to come up with a design that is pleasing to the eye before actually using paint-it's easier and faster to wipe off and redo pencil lines than enamel, but Styles' years of experience allow him to just hit it and get it done on the first try. With practice, the novice will be able to do so as well.

Here's the nearly completed design Styles graced the decklid of our project Deuce. The curving lines are accomplished by rolling the brush between the fingers as you make a turn so that the blade of the brush bristles stay at the same angle of contact as when pulling a straight line-something the novice will master with continued practice.

Here's what we ended up with (along with an equally cool design up front on the grille shell). Styles' hour or so of striping transformed a nice-looking Deuce roadster into an exceptional one-and though by no means has this article been a step-by-step guide to striping, hopefully it'll entice at least a few to give pinstriping a try. Heck, it could end up a neat way to have some fun, as well as a possible future source for some extra green you can spend on some more hot rod parts.