hey everybody, i was thinking of changing the look of my car a little...i want to go from factory bonnet stripes to viper style stripes. But my question is this: if i remove the bonnet stripes, is the paint under the stripes going to be a lot darker than the paint that has been exposed? is has been well taked care of, but not garaged...and this is Chicago, so snow and other elements have had their shot at the paint. any info would be appreciated.
thanks
Marco

p.s. the stripes were applied at the factory and not at the dealer, if that makes a difference.

 

My instinct for a non-garaged car would be that the paint would be faded a little bit. I have no idea to what extent. I have read that people have removed them and that there was no difference.

mb

 

i have also had it for 2 years this april...

 

You'd think that being exposed to the elements would have an effect on the paint. Have you consulted the dealer or a shop that you're planning on having the stripes installed?

I am just thinking about installing some bonnet stripes on my MINI as well... I currently don't have any installed though so I guess I'm in a little better shape! Please post your results because this may have an affect on what kind of stripes I install.

 

I've had 2 sets of stripes on my car and when I removed my first Frosted Stripes I did notice alittle difference in the paint mainly just alittle line on the edges of the decal. Nothing really all that bad. With alittle detailing and alittle elbow grease I was able to smooth everything out and you couldn't notice where the old stipes were. You just have to be careful when removing the stripes a good idea is to do it when its warm out or just use a heat gun or hair drier.

 

if u have kept ur bonnet waxed a lot then it may not show a difference in colour but in tha texture, 2yrs is a long time when it comes to stuff like this
w/tha reflective nature of tha paint u mayb safe!

 

My car is a black 2003 from sunny Florida. I removed my factory stripes in March 05, cleaned the excess adhesive off, then polished it. You can't tell there were ever stripes on the car

 

Had mine on for over two years before deciding to change them.
Even had a back-up pattern worked out because I feared the paint fade.
I was pleasantly suprised you could never tell they were there when
removed. Just heat them up a little, grab the top edge and slowly pull
them down the bonnet. You may have some residue left, but that easily
cleans right up.

 

Even if there is some fading you could always just put the same type of stripe back on. So, go for it.

 

thats a good point...

 

really, on black!?!? thats impressive

 

removed mine after 3 years and let me tell you, you can see it night and day
even after buffing and polishing the paint was faided and i waxed 4 times a year

mine was dark silver and ware the stripes were was a little darker

so repaint is in order

 

Not a repaint, a re-stripe with at least one that covers the original area of the factory stripes.

 

well with close to 130,000 miles the front has seen its share of rocks

so a repaint is still needed to look fresh

 

I recently removed the factory stripes off my Chili Red to install new ones. Under the stripes the paint was a lighter color. Apparently, and I am not too sure about this but I trust the shop, red paint gets darker first and then lighter as it fades. The lighter color pigments fade first, leaving the darker pigments to fade next.

The new stripes covered up most of it, but you can still see some difference. It is not a dramatic difference. They even polished the hood to see if they could even it out more. No dice.

 

yea, red is a difficult colour like that!