took off my stripes!

[notsonic]

for anyone who remembers, this is what my car used to look like:



but that pic is over a year old. the winter wasnt really nice to my stripes and they cracked like crazy all over the place. i probably should have taken a picture, but i didnt.

anyway.

what i did was i parked in the sun. let them warm up a bit. i also had a hair dryer with me for the more stubborn spots. then i just picked at em and peeled em up with my hands. the bumper was by far the easiest. the hood wasnt so bad. but those little vent scoops, i think theyre fiberglass, they were a *****.



to get all the goo off i used turtle wax bug and tar and sap remover. its a goo kinda like a liquid wax. came off fairly easily. goo gone also works but i ran out. id say the bug and tar stuff worked better. it specifies that its clearcoat safe, so if you buy something similar, make sure it says that too. it also works good on the few tar spots i tried it on.

then i washed it with this wash/wax combo as i couldnt find my regular soap. its been so long since ive washed my car i forgot how good it can look.



then i touched it up really quickly in photoshop



theres still some of the wax/dirt/residue left from the outline of the stripes but its not that noticeable. if i tried harder i couldve gotten it all but it was ~100* outside today. i bought a clay kit to try out tomorrow and after that i can wax it properly.

[t-topV6]

Re: took off my stripes!

yup... looks real good... you ever gonna re-stripe it? how much were they... i think i found a site that sold really cheap stripes once they were like 50-60 bucks... but i could never find it again... nice job taking them off though :):tup:

[notsonic]

Re: took off my stripes!

i think im gonna roll with the clean look for now.:burn:

i have no idea where the ones i had came from. i bought the car with em. and for whatever reason they were only on the hood too. didnt go to the spoiler/bumper.

i think the site youre looking for is http://www.vinylstripes.com/main.sc

if i get stripes again, theyll be black or silver or something, i dont know if ill do white again. theyll have a pinstripe for sure too.

id like to get an ss hood though. if i do i'm painting the scoop black. no stripes.

i do feel like my car lost some of its identity though. im sure a lot of people recognized me by the stripes. i could miss that.

[t-topV6]

Re: took off my stripes!

i think im gonna roll with the clean look for now.:burn:

i have no idea where the ones i had came from. i bought the car with em. and for whatever reason they were only on the hood too. didnt go to the spoiler/bumper.

i think the site youre looking for is http://www.vinylstripes.com/main.sc

if i get stripes again, theyll be black or silver or something, i dont know if ill do white again. theyll have a pinstripe for sure too.

id like to get an ss hood though. if i do i'm painting the scoop black. no stripes.

i do feel like my car lost some of its identity though. im sure a lot of people recognized me by the stripes. i could miss that.

haha thats it.. no way, thanks... well, stripes definetly add identity to your car... not many cars have them where i live, and i would be the only camaro ive seen around here to have them... if i do get some, i don't think i could put them on myself... to big of a job... i might screw it up... i would have a shop do it.. :P, don't worry, your car looks great clean though too :rock:

[95astrovan]

Re: took off my stripes!

i thought about doin some silver stripes like those on my black camaro, but i just never could justify the money

good job gettin those off tho, car looks good with and without...sweet ride

[FirebirdPhil]

Re: took off my stripes!

Looks good man, kudos! :tup:

[Archer]

Re: took off my stripes!

looked so good, God himself took pics of it from above..

So with photoshop, how did you get it to shine? isnt it suppose to be that good at all time MR!.. lol

Archer

[notsonic]

Re: took off my stripes!

haha

the pictures were taken from my second story window.

thats why the focus, lighting, and framing of the shot is terrible.

it is really pretty shiny, i was pretty surpried.

with photoshop all i did was increase the contrast, lower the brightness, and increase the sharpness slightly. theres a thread on ls1tech on how to do it properly, i just did it real quick.

[Archer]

Re: took off my stripes!

and people tell me there is a god.. huh it was just you from the second story window. lmao

Looks good man..
Archer

[nascar24jd]

Re: took off my stripes!

Looks really good. It would look even better with tinted windows.

[Firebirdkid96]

Re: took off my stripes!

Yeah, it would look killer with tinted windows. Did a good job pulling them, but it does kinda look like it's missing something.

and yeah, with photoshop, just add contrast and sharpness, pull out a little brightness for compensation, I usually raise color temperature a tad, and I might adjust saturation depending on the photo...

I think you went alittle overboard on the contrast, but that's just me lol

Looks awesome either way

[notsonic]

Re: took off my stripes!

i just sent an email to a local place that does tints asking for a quote.

how do you pass inspection though. so many people have tints in nj, but anything on the side windows is illegal. i'll most likely get 35% since i like how it looks and dont want to draw too much attention either. plus its hard enough to see at night as it is.:eek:

[Firebirdkid96]

Re: took off my stripes!

Find someone who writes the sticker and doesn't even look at the car.

Friends in the right places.

I'm hoping and praying I find one lol

[95astrovan]

Re: took off my stripes!

haha, guys dont really care about tint round here, as long as everything mechanical is in order

[kristen]

Re: took off my stripes!

with those rims hockey stripes would look wonderful!