PIN Stripes (coach lining)

[EuropatcSPECIAL]

Good evening Gents. I've decided to have the pin stripes put on the car. 2 questions
1)What is the width of the pin stripe
2) Has anyone a flattened view or similar of the positioning of the pin stripes please
many thanks
Stuart

[BDA]

I think the pin striping was often applied at dealerships because they are sometimes different. They are usually 3/16" or 1/4" in bright gold tape. You can get some ideas from googling 'europa jps striping'. In fact, a picture of my car comes up! I remember seeing where someone posted measurements for where the stripes are on the lotuseuropa yahoo group (a great resource in addition to this forum), but I couldn't find it just now.

Normally the strips rim the bonnet, the area in front of the bonnet between the turn signals, roof, the "flat panel" areas behind the doors and above the rear wheels, and the "flat area" on the boot. Then there is a strip the goes from just behind the head lamps, through the door handles to just in front of the rear bumper. In addition, I have a strip that rims the horizontal portion of the boot.

[4129R]

When I had my original 1975 JPS car resprayed in 1979, they sprayed the gold pin stripes on.

Apparently that was a bitch of a job.

Getting pin stripes to follow curved lines is a challenge.

I had thought of getting a commercial sign writer to re-paint mine. 

[BDA]

That shouldn't be necessary. The body shop that painted my car put the stripes on as part of the job. The gave me a choice of colors - of course, I chose the brightest gold. The tape is fairly flexible to make some of those turns. The stripes on the back of the boot form a rectangle, but the first Europa I had actually had rounded corners on the bottom - a very tight turn. It could be that if I had used 3/16" tape, those corners might have been able to be rounded. Tape is a lot easier to repair.

[4129R]

If you want, I can take photos of each panel, so you can see each design.

If you pop down to Norfolk down the A1, with some tracing paper, you can copy the design of mine. I'm near Fakenham.

[EuropatcSPECIAL]

Thank you all, 3/16ths it is then. Ill give him a call tomorrow
all the best
Stuart

[LotusJoe]

I found a link to the proper pin striping for the Twin Cam Special.

http://www.lotus-europa.com/manuals/misc/TCS%20Stripes%2074.pdf

[EuropatcSPECIAL]

LotusJoe your a star. Thank you for going to such trouble
all the best
Stuart

[EuropatcSPECIAL]

Gentlemen another question, do you know of anyone who readily has a stock of 3/16th. The chap at the body shop isn't having much joy in sourcing a supply
thanks in anticipation
all the best
Stuart

[BDA]

CarQuest lists 3/16" 3M pinstriping but I don't see it on 3M's site. To my surprise, I wasn't able to find any 3/16" single color striping anywhere in the short time I looked. I used 1/4" on my car. But then I thought they were 1/4" originally. It could have been that they really were 1/4" but it was 35 years since I had seen my car with stripes when I got my car painted, so my memory might be off! I've posted some pictures of my car so you can see how it looks.

If you can't find 3/16", I'd go with 1/4". Just my opinion.

Good luck!

[jbcollier]

Just google "3/16 pin striping gold".  Lots of hits.

[BDA]

Good catch, John! I would have thought my searches would have picked at least some of those! The wonders and oddities of Google!

One of the hits I got was from O'Reilly's (http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/MMM0/70503/N2514.oap?pt=N2514&ppt=C2390). Here is the Scotch page for that product (http://3mcollision.com/products/decorative-reflective-film-tape/striping/3m-scotchcal-striping-tape-70503-gold-metallic.html).

[EuropatcSPECIAL]

Thank you all
its a big help
Stuart

[EuropatcSPECIAL]

Update, I found a chap to do the job. He is 30 miles from my home base. He has undertaken this sort of work for 30 years, and he had 3/16th in stock
Result
thank you all again.

[BDA]

He sounds like the ticket! Don't forget to post pictures when he's done!