Time to rant.

On May 10th, I ordered Boot and Side stripes from one of the Vendors on this website. Having purchased hundreds of things online, I was expecting a two week or so turnaround. 36 days later they were shipped, and I got them two weeks after that (They apparently use the Pony Express for mail ). So I was already upset, but really looking forward to geting them put on.

I took them to a local shop (Highly recommended for mechanical work, who said he would try.) He was uncessful in his attempt to put them on. Not a huge deal, it's not his bag of peanuts.
He recommended a local body shop to try again. They just informed me, that they were totally unsuccessful as well. You would think a body shop could do graphics correctly, but that would be a big no. Now here's the really crappy part. The side stripes, are on. The bonnet stripes, are on. But no boot stripes. Apparently, boot stripes are the hardest thing to install in the world.

Now I'm waiting to hear back from a couple of dealers about installs. Why didn't I call them in the first place? Because the closest dealer is an hour away (with no traffic, which doesn't happen excpet at 2 in the morning) in downtown Boston, the home of road rage.....

WHY IS THIS SO F'N HARD?

Two 18 inch by 3 inch pieces of Vnyl have become the bane of my existence.

 

Sorry you're having a hard time at it. Imagox wrote-up an good how-to on the boot stripes here.

 

Thanks.
That ought to help when I get my new set of stripes.
Which should be sometime in 2012.

 

Sign guys deal in vinyl all the time and some of them also deal in vinyl on vehicles often. Try one of them for proper application.

 

The boot has lots of compound curves that make it difficult to keep the stripes even in width as they stretch and compress to fit the curves. I gave up with this stripe from Mighty Stripes. I think I'd buy from another vendor next time.

Who was your vendor? I've heard good things about Cooper Flags, and they seem to have better quality vinyl. I hope it wasn't them that you had problems with.

 

I bet I could guess who that vendor was. Pony Express would be faster than their shipping. Seriously.

The guy that installed my checkered vinyl roof does vehicle wraps... you know, the vans and commercial trucks that appear to be billboards on wheels.

 

You did not list the vendor I ordered from.
I'm going to look into a sign place around here. Of the three dealers I spoke to, 1 had no idea, 1 wanted to charge upwards of $250, and the other just took my info down and said they'd call me.

On the other hand, my side stripes do look awesome:

 

Yep, those DO look sharp !

Hey, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you like football.

 

Those side stripes look like they would be pretty easy to put on because of the shape of the side. The boot is a nightmare in comparison. I decided that the cop following me didn't need to be looking at a racing stripe, while the slow-poke in front of me should see a stripe in his/her rear-view mirror.

 

The side stripes look terrific!

G/L with the boot stripes. I think there are some great suggestions in the above posts for possible solutions and folks to contact/work with.

 

Geez, I thought the big deal was over bonnet stripes... must read more carefully. Trust me when I say adding boot stripes is a large PIECE OF CAKE. Took me about 45 minutes, IIRC. And there was nothing difficult about it.

If I could do that for a living and charge $50 a job, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I'm sure I could do them now in about 30 minutes which comes out to a nifty $100 an hour.

Check my cipherin', Jethro ! Jethro says that's right... $100 an hour. (older folks, help out the young ones with that bad attempt at humor)


Edit: Here's a great thread to help you out:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...t=Boot+Stripes

 

I agree the side stripes look incredible.

 

Thanks!