Custom Corvette Striping - Band Of Color

Tape and paper off any areas where you don't want overspray. When you're done, any areas that remain exposed should be covered with plastic sheeting.

Before painting, wipe the target area with a tack cloth and use unoiled compressed air to remove any remaining particles. Salts and oils in your skin can recontaminate the car's surface, so be sure not to touch the area when you're done.

Apply a coat of Polyolefin Adhesion Promoter and allow five minutes to dry. The adhesion promoter will help the paint stick to the surface.

Here, our paint technician is applying the first layer of color. Allow the basecoat to flash between coats. You can accelerate the flash time by blowing air at a 45-degree angle along the stripes with your spray gun. Tack off between coats only if there are foreign objects in the basecoat that will not blow out. Most paints can be reduced by as much as 50 percent on the last coat. This will help make the color more transparent, facilitating a more uniform blend. Three coats will normally do the job, but be sure to use your paint manufacturer's recommended procedure.

It's now time to reveal our work. It's a good idea to remove the masking paper first, followed by the fine-line tape, while the paint is still a bit tacky. Waiting too long before removing the tape may cause the paint to chip at the edges. Removing it too soon may create gluey strings along the edge. Pull the tape at a 45-degree angle to avoid peeling.

Spray two or three coats of clear on the entire panel where the stripes were applied. This should make the transition between the car's original finish and the stripe invisible.

After drying, carefully remove the plastic sheeting, paper, and tape.

If necessary, the final product can be wet-sanded with a very fine, high-grit sandpaper to remove nibs and sags. A P1500-grit sandpaper is a good choice if you're hand-sanding with a sanding pad. Or, you may use a dual-action sander with a 3M interface pad and a P1500 clearcoat sanding disk. To refine sanding scratches even further and cut buffing time in half, switch to P3000 on your interface pad. Use care and go slowly; if you start seeing color, you've gone too far. When sanding, remember to match the finish on the rest of the car. It's now time to buff the finished product and show off our new stripes.

If you'd like to duplicate the stripe on our C5, just use the following dimensions. The distance from the top centerline of the hood to the first 0.25-inch black stripe measures 2 inches. We then have 0.25 inch of body color, followed by a 14.5-inch black stripe. Next comes another 0.25 inch of body color, followed by a 0.25-inch black stripe. The 14.5-inch stripe slims to 7.25 inches by the time it reaches the bottom of the hood.