Serious questions about stencils

7173Mustangs.com

Help Support 7173Mustangs.com:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

72MustangCoupe

Active member
Joined
Jun 17, 2014
Messages
29
Reaction score
0
Location
USA
My Car
1972 Mustang Coupe
2014 Mustang Convertible
If you have been looking at my other posts, you will know that me and my dad are restoring a 1972 Ford Mustang coupe that is in amazing condition. We bought it and drove it home November 27th and I have all the original ephemera with the car and this car looks excellent for its age. It had a white vinyl top but it had to be removed because of early forms of rust and little rust issues here and there. Anyways, me and my dad are restoring this car back to its original conditon mechanically and interior wise. We would like to add a twist to it and build it just like the picture below(credit to whomevers car this is me and my dad love it) we are leaving it all original inside and just painting it gold glow(original color) and the stencils I circled below. Now for the questions, where is the best place to order these stencils from? Experience with yours? And the exact color (matte or glossy) for these stencils on the nasa hood paintjob and the lower front and rear valance and lower door / fender stripes. the front a rear valance along with the door / fender stripes circled below - is that a stencil? How is this done... I cannot find anything on the Internet, how did you apply it if so? Is part of it painted? Thanks.

image.jpg

 
The stripes that extend from the fender, across the mid door and to the 1/4 panel are vinyl "stickers" dubbed the "hockey-stick" racing stripes. The NASA hood may have a stencil for it, but I believe that the correct borders are 1" around the perimeter of the hood bulge and nose of the scoops. I'm sure somebody will correct me on that. The lower door/rocker stripe is also painted.

They should all be matte finish but its really up to you. A lot of people go full gloss. "Hockey-stick" stripes can be sourced from Don at Ohio Mustang Supply. And I'd search around ebay for a Mach 1.

 
There are some that are not right.

One of our members, Kit Sullivan, bought his 429 Mach 1 brand new and still owns and enjoys it! He worked Graphics Express who copied the original paint layout/design on his car.

Here is the Graphics Express website:

http://www.graphic-express.com/1971-1972...tripes.asp

Ray

 
Graphis Express has the correct hood template, and good quality reproduction stripes.

Put 50% flattening agent in any color you are going to paint the hood, and it will be "correct" in appearance. Be forewarned: you CANNOT wax it!

 
Graphic express even make custom color decals which is cool if you want a paint scheme that differs from back or argent stripes.

 
Thanks Kit... below is the picture that Graphic Express displays with the stencil. It just doesn't look like what I expected. Is it possible they just have an incorrect picture. There is a definite difference between the 2 blackouts.

I appreciate your input... Thanks

Graphic Express Picture:

1180h1k.png


429 Site Picture

2ly1oic.jpg


 
Be careful when using the Graphics Express stencil. It's a great product, and really, REALLY close to the perfect shape. I personally think it needs to be about 3/4" wider... but properly placed, it should be about as close as you can get.

The biggest drawback is the material they used - it's a one-and-done deal, unless you take steps to place it with some kind of graphics/decal placement agent (which I don't recall if it was recommended or not). I provided tons of pics of the correct layouts, and my painter still managed to mess things up a bit. My painter actually put the stencil on too far back (my fault, as I wasn't absolutely clear on placement of the front of the mask in relation to the hood - my front edge trim was painted off the car... so it was not present. My bad). But he placed it about a half-inch too far to the passenger side, and since it was stuck down (it'll stretch if you try to remove/reposition after being stuck-on dry). I literally had to cut up the driver side of the stencil, and hand-stripe it to match the passenger side. My hood's close... not perfect... but since mine's a restomod, it's "close enough" for this time 'round for paint (I'm sure it'll get a new paint job sometime down the road).

Original rusted out pewter and black hood with TuTone (after 42 years of sunburn and recently being soda-blasted):

hood1.jpg

After the stencil mishap and recovery:

painted3.jpg

Like I said, it's "close." ;) (I also went "glossy" because the West Texas heat will burn through unwaxed matte or flat finishes in no-time)

The rocker panel area is just a 1/4" stripe 1/4" away from the lower color, which is applied at the lower 'crease' of the panels... as you've pointed out.

The hockey stripes are vinyl tape stripes, as kid pointed out, which a guy could either install or use to establish a mask if painted-on stripes were preferred. Just mount the stripes, mask off the areas immediately around the stripes, remove the stripes themselves, and you're ready for paint.

A cautionary note with the stripes & rocker treatment: make sure your fenders, panels, doors, etc., are absolutely lined up before you do the stripes and rocker treatment - otherwise, you'll have a misaligned stripe and/or rocker treatment when you realize you need to adjust the door(s), fender(s), etc. Ask me how I know. ;) :D

 
If that 73 is in the illustration on the Graphix Express site, they are idiots...that is not even close to correct. The stencil they sell IS correct, though.

 
If that 73 is in the illustration on the Graphix Express site, they are idiots...that is not even close to correct. The stencil they sell IS correct, though.
I'd noticed that as well... but, maybe they had someone else make their website and that person didn't know any better. :huh:

 
Back
Top