I like pin stripes but not the one thats on my truck. Its this really wild orange and silver stripe that is painted on. I was wondering what I need to do to get it off. FWIW this is on a 97 F150 that I believe the stripes have been on there since almost new.

 

I don't know what type of paint it is, but you might try lacquer thinner. The thinner will not hurt the paint on the truck, but if they used a poor quality paint on the stripes it should take it off. If it is high quality paint, not sure what would take it off. You might also get some shadowing from them being on there so long.

 

yeah I will try the lacquer thinner and see what that does. I was told you can wet sand them off too, but I have never wet sanded to know if it would work or not.

 

I personly would not use the laquer thinner to remove it because the pinstriping paint probably left an etching under it. In my opinion you net to wetsand them off, but don't do that if you dont' have a rotary buffer to buff the wetsanded areas.

 

Whoa on Lacquer Thinner not harming your paint! That happens to be a fairly "hot" solvent and given the right (generally amount of time, it will soften and / or remove your paint. If you insist on using it, don't use it for long or rub very hard.

 

I had a Honda back in highschool that had painted stripes and I removed them by wet sanding, use a high number paper liike 1500 or so and just take your time not going into the factory paint, afterward buff with a good compound.

 

Negative on laquer thinner. Just get some mineral spirits from walmart, rub lightly on them to get some on it and let it soak for just a moment, then rub it off. Rainx will do the same thing if you have it laying around

 

First question, are the stripes over or under the clear? If they're under the clear and you go sanding, you're going to have a mess...a big one. If they're over the clear (and are painted and not vinyl) you can generally just buff them off, no sanding. Be careful if you go sanding them off because not only are you sanding the stripe, but you're also sanding the clear AROUND it. Use a hard sanding block and sand out a couple inches away from the stripe. In the end you will have to compound it, whether it's with a buffer or your soon to be dead arms.