I was wondering if it would look like crap to paint the strips on the hood, deck, spoiler and rear but leave the tape on the front and rear bumpers. Removing the bumpers to paint them separate is a big part of the expense and requires different materials due to flexing. The hood and deck lid would have to be removed for painting and complete clear recoat, but covering up the rest of the car to do the small rear panel and small over the windshield bar on the vert should'nt be that big of an issue in a well ventilated booth.
Doing the roof on a coupe should'nt be that bad either since there is a body line on the sides to blend to. The roof would just be done at the same time as the rear panel, and overspray in the entire booth would be minimal to only paint those two areas. All body seams (from the hood and decklid) would be completely covered since those panels would be done separate, so there should'nt be overspray "leaking" into the engine compartment or trunk area.
I guess the worst case scenario is that if you don't like it when its done you can have the bumpers removed and done at a later date to match up. Its no more work to remove and stripe them 6 months later than it is to do them at the same time. All you lose is a couple of days off the road.
Its just a thought, because I have been dealing with the same decision on my vert. The stick ons look like crap in terms of surface quality. However, I did see a GT coupe the same color as mine (red with black stripes painted on) at a local event. I was impressed at first, but as I looked at it more and more I realized that I missed the contrast of the surface textures between the tape and smooth clear finish. The painted on stripes look much better under the lights, but on the street you kind of expect to see the different surface textures.
More decisions...more mods. Will it ever end?
imp:
