Pontiac Owners Club UK

I'm thinking about giving my car a really nice paint job, it' a good car but a few signs of age and chips, and it's a good enough start to turn into a really lovely show finish.

The car is a '79 SE Trans Am, and I had considered ditching the pinstripes and just fitting the normal Trans Am decals, as these cars seem to look neater and cleaner without too much medallion man bling. My other problem with the pinstripes is that they soon look tatty as various joints and corners start to lift and peel due to wash and polish cloths catching.

But, another thought was to have the pinstripes painted onto the basecoat and lackered over rather than using the transfers. Has anybody had hand-pinstriping done on one of these cars, or can recommend a skilled old-school hand pinstriper?

I believe it's common practice to paint clear over the corners and edges of pin striping to prevent the kind of lifting you are taking about. Never heard of anybody painting the pinstripe on, by have seen plenty of trans ams with painted decals and the. Clear over the top of those.

I've seen hand-painted pinstripe work on other cars, usually just with door and wing top pinstripes. It can look gorgeous and is flatter than transfers, but finding somebody able/willing to do the job on a SE might be tricky!

all the gold pinstripes/decals are what give the se's the wow factor. bet it would cost a fortune if you found someone good enough to hand paint them all on as theres lots off it and a very specialist job. the ultimate se decal kits available now seem to be very good and if you get the pre-formed pin striping its already cut to shape to fit all the contours so should stick better and hopefully last longer. I wondered myself if you could clearcoat over all the decals to protect them as that would be great if it can be done. andy.

Yes you can clear coat over the pin stripes BUT!!!!, from what i can remember, and this is in plain terms, the lacquer expands at a different rate to the stripes in warm weather. Over time this causes cracking and makes a right mess of the paintwork. Better to have them painted on. As you say tho Andy, this will cost a fortune on an SE. Also, its easier to replace a suck on stripe rather that one that has been clear coated over

I would imagine if you clear coated all of them then over time as adhesive loosens up his would also cause cracking etc in the clear coat.

yes it would

Ive pinstriped a few SE cars, buy the ultimate kit so there are fewer joins, I bought a touch up stick from Halfords that was just clear lacquer and dabbed it on the ends to stop them from lifting, worked a treat!

I am not looking forward to putting the bird on

looks easy on the how to videos lol. how you getting on chris be good to get an update mate. andy.

nearly there. Will upload some more pics. painting all the bolt on bits tomorrow, then the nose and rear bumper. Hope to paint the body wed or thurs eve

Ive done two birds now, just check and double check the measurements, and don't do it outside!

where would i find the measurements ?