GSX Stripe package - Stencil or Decal ?

Hey guys, Getting close to painting my car Saturn Yellow. Just picked up the paint last weekend base/clear coat. My question is I'm making a GSX clone and have a dilemma. I want to paint the car myself because of cost. Done a few cars in the past but just one shot color. However doing stripes like the GSX is a whole new ballgame. I would prefer a professional auto body shop to put on the stripes. I don't have steady enough hands for the job I think. Is it possible for me to paint and clear my car then drive it to a body shop and have them put the stripes on? Either they would sand the clear down on where the stripes go or just put on the stripes and clear back over ? I contacted Phoenix graphics but all they offer is a stencil kit. Decals sure would make the job a lot easier. Has anyone seen a decal GSX car ? Did it look good ? Does anyone even make a decal GSX kit ? I'm not sure how the stencil kits work .. do they have self adhesive backing or something ? How do you get it tape down to the car to get a fine edge on the lines ? My only other choice is to just paint on the stripes before I paint the car then tape off the stripes and paint the car. Again though with that method seems I would never get a straight line on the retape with 3m tape. Granted my car is not going to be a trailer queen but at the same time I would like it to look halfway decent Thanks in advance for any help.. not sure how to go about tackling this issue. Will be painting the body of the car first. Then driving it outside to make room to paint my hood, front/back bumpers, trunk, spoilers, fenders all fiberglass.

 

Once the black is laid the border stripes are cake, just lay up next the other, stripes on top of the clear is obviously the way for the correct appearance, I bury the stripes 99% of the time due to personal preference and to protect the stripe edges, if you do choose to go on top the clear, mask the black off gray scotchbrite then a mist coat off Bulldog adhesion promoter and keep coats light and untape b4 it fully cures. Stencil is more trouble than its worth, there are measurements here on the board use those to place locating stripsof tape on both ends then pull the tape from one end to the other locating strip in a fluid motion

 

There was another company doing these in Charlotte NC.

 

http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.p...orth-Carolina&highlight=GSX+decals++Charlotte

 

Agreed I got mine from Chris & was happy with them.Requested my stripes a matte black instead of gloss.
I had major problems trying to stripe the spoiler & took it to the pro's who also had fun with it,order 2 spoiler decals just in case:TU:

 

I used a Performance Graphics kit for the side stripes on my GSX race car. They worked out fantastic! I did have a few issues in the beginning but they worked with me and made it right! Good guys to deal with. I think Chris was his name. I painted the stripes on my hood as I did a little custom work in the paint. If you didn't know the side stripes were vinyl you would most likely would never notice.... unless your keying in on the stripes for comparison.

Take your time, keep everything super clean and get some help. No problem to install. Absolute worse case you can use a heat gun and pull them off with no damage done if you don't like them or want to change the look in the future.

Steve

 

Steve let me say your car is the reason I almost went white instead of yellow Your car is also the reason why after I finish my yellow im picking up another car to start a white GSX clone

Decals are the way to go without a doubt... im sold. Will contact Chris. Thanks everyone for the help. I think im going to have the decals put on by a bodyshop. However with going decal I can paint and clear the car myself then drive it over later for the stripes.

Steve one more question did you get gloss black or matte black stripes? Im not sure which would look best trying to decide. Also did these stripes come with the measurements or am I going to need to dig on the forum to find them ?

 

Thanks for the compliments!! The GSX is for sale by the way... if you know anyone interested!!

I used the matte finish. I don't recall 100%, but I think it came with measurements. If not I'm sure I still have them in my files.
Let me know if you need them.

Thanks again,
Steve

 

when my brother had his gs cloned to a gsx, several years ago, the bodyshop owner painted the stripes onto the body and then clear coated them. took him about 8 hours from start to finish. they looked fantastic!

 

This stencil kit worked for my friends car http://www.phoenixgraphix.com/gm/7072gsx.php

Mine has the sticker stripes.. awful.

 

Update if anyone is interested later down the road and finds this thread. Called performance graphics today.. super nice people and easy to deal with. Pretty much the color combo was up to me so I picked a matte black with tomato color pin stripes or as close to the oem red as possible. Kit comes with everything needed. No decal for the hood because of the hood louvers. However they do provide the pin stripes for the hood and all the measurements for the car. I painted my car over the weekend and would post pictures if I could, some reason pictures wont upload. Anyhow when I get the kit I will post an update.

 

If you need the GSX stripe dimensions,I have the reprints from Muscle Car Review that show the correct dimensions..Let me know..

 

Moved to my other computer.. able to post pics.

 

Looks good. Just curious what you used for a paint code? How did you like that nason paint? I used it for the first time a couple weeks ago. I found it to be very transparent compared to Chroma base, PPG omni, sherwin williams, and House Of Kolor I have sprayed in the past. I have done complete overalls with a gallon and a half using chroma base. So far I have only painted the shell on the chevelle I am painting and I have used just over a gallon of nason base/clear. I'm not too impressed with it as far as coverage goes. What there was on savings will be outweighed due to the need for more product in my case.

 

Would you happen to have a little more detail on performance graphics, there seems to be a few of them

 

Here ya go!:
http://www.performance-graphics.net/buickstripekit.html

 

Thank you, here a update: the number is no longer in service

 

I tried to track them down a couple years ago. I think they are doing rescue vehicle badging now. Asked them if they had any in stock or if they would share/sell the cut file. No go. Good luck!

 

Hoping since this thread is now 2.5 years old someone else may have stepped into the demand of producing a GSX decal set. Phoenix and Performance Graphics are still not producing. Any new vendors out there?

 

Not worth using if there is,...only way to do them is paint and by a professional,....it's a tedious job,...$2500 for me to do a set