Painting Stripes on a 2010 Camaro SS - Striped Right

Here's The Professional Way To Add SS Flavor To A New Camaro.

HOT ROD StaffWriter

Just like two fat burnout marks say a gearhead has been here, two fat stripes across the hood and decklid says a car means business. Back in the '60s and early-'70s Chevrolet was king of the muscle car mountain with multiple platforms stuffed full of tire-shredding power. As the '70s wore on, the power output slumped and Chevrolet's street presence kind of slipped.

Chevrolet is aiming to regain its muscle car clout with the '10 Camaro. The SS version is one of the fastest F-bodies ever offered from the factory so it should wear the stripes its earlier brethren had. You can get a Camaro with a stripe kit from the dealer, but its not going to be paint like the old days. Thanks to the modern need to be cost-effective, Chevy decided to tack on a set of vinyl decals. While the decals are simple and cost-effective to apply, they are still just glorified stickers and because they are sitting on top of the paint the edges are going to hold dirt and dried wax. To give the car the stripes it's worthy of, we decided to find a car and have a set painted on by a professional.

We talked Mark Going into taking his factory-fresh Cyber Grey Metallic SS over to Clean Cut Creations in St. Louis to have John Meyer and his crew (Richard Kuehl and Tim Genz) stripe it up. John is well-versed in muscle car painting and agrees that the new Camaro should have painted stripes buried under the clear.

John had an idea to make these stripes a little different than most by changing the outline color to a high contrast orange instead of the matching black. If you're not into the orange then you can glaze over a few steps, but as you can see the orange adds a little modern flash to a classic design.

If the depths of your painting skills end at a rattle can (spray paint), then this story will show you the amount of work something like this takes and why paint shops charge what they do. Now, if you fancy yourself a painter, then there are a few killer tips in here to keep them symmetrical and help reduce the bump under the clear to keep the finish nice and slick.

Also, John at Clean Cut Creations is now offering a stencil kit of these stripes to simplify the masking process and allow you to focus on shooting the slickest coat of paint you can.

The rear taillight panel of the car is going to be blacked out to complement the stripes. For clean, professional results, the Bow Tie emblem is removed. It's held on with two-sided tape and is easily removed with some wire form the MIG welder. The line will cut through the tape without damaging the finish or the emblem, but it will leave behind some tape residue that can be rubbed off with your thumb. This is a great way to remove late-model emblems if you are looking to de-badge your ride.

To start laying out the stripes, John will need a centerline. He first finds the center on the back of the hood by measuring from each edge of the cowl. The front is a bit easier as the hood comes to a point. This is also where John tries a few strip sizes and spacing combinations. The final version that looked the best with the lines of the Camaro was 15 1/4-inch-wide stripes with 53/8-inches separating the two.

With the entire perimeter of the stripe laid out, John comes back and carefully puts tape on both sides of the initial line.

The rubbing is removed from the Camaro and laid on cardboard. A pounce wheel is used to follow the traced lines, punching tiny little holes in the paper. These can be picked up at most automotive paint supply houses or from companies like Eastwood.

After another 20 minutes, the tape was removed to reveal the SS stripes. This is the point where the stripe areas are scrutinized for any miss tapes or blow-throughs. A careful masking job will prevent these, but if you happen to find one you can just lightly sand it off with some 800-grit paper.

After the fist round of clear was dry, John came in and sanded it with some Mirka 800 wet or dry paper. This will lessen the bump where the clear goes over the stripes. To cut down on the chance your paper will gouge as you sand, soak all the wet or dry paper in a bucket of clean water overnight to soften the paper's backing.

...stripes, which will include the stripe map, stencil ends and finished pictures for reference, just give him a call or check out the shop's web site at right. Also, if you mention Super Chevy magazine, they will ship it out for free.

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