At first this whole thing started with just putting on some vinyl stripes. I didn't really see any sizes that really stood out to me. However I saw what painted stripes looked like up close, and that was it. I knew I had to have them custom painted on to my liking. Then I just got carried away...
After searching for a couple months and looking a many stripe sizes I settled on the main stripe being about 7" wide, with a 1/4" pinstripe on each side, and 1/4" spacing. Thus making the whole stripe to be appear about 8" in width.
When picking a shade of white for the stripes, I had a ton of options...I searched through literally hundreds of off whites/silvers, but once I found this color it just stood right out. It was the brightest white that I could find. It's a Ford color called "Performance White".
The first thing was putting on the 1995 Style Cobra R hood from Cervini's because I thought it gave the car a nice aggressive look, and because next year I plan on supercharging the car so I will need the extra clearance.
The stripes were hard to design for the whole car mainly because of the hood. I have never seen anyone put any type of stripes on this specific Cowl hood so it was hard for me to imagine what they would look like.
Here are a couple pics of mocking up the stripes on the old hood in the shop.
After the hood I thought why not get a new front bumper. So I purchased an OEM one from Stage 3 Motorsports. Aslo I bought the Saleen 1 piece wing from Stage 3 Motorsports. I thought I was finished after this...but I wasn't. The last thing to go were the stock side scoops. I purchased the Cobra side scoops from Mrbodykit.
The antenna was shaved off of the right fender, because first of all I thought by taking it off, it would give the fender a much cleaner look. Secondly I don't listen to the radio, mainly because there's nothing on, and because I just installed Sirius Satellite Radio, which doesn't need a huge antenna.
All of the parts were intended to be installed at the same time at the end of Spring 2008, but the Saleen parts came in damaged so on the first round of bodywork, so only the hood and side scoops were added, and the antenna was shaved off.
Here are a couple pics of the car in the spray booth during round.
After seeing the car with just the main stripes, I felt it was missing something. I looked into painting on side rocker stripes. I saw many different styles but didn't know exactly which one I wanted, so started to do a mockup.
I started with a clear overhead projector blank sheet, white spray paint, luon wood, tape, and some reebar. I cut the luane into strips of 1/4" and 3/8" on a table saw. I then cut the clear sheet into 3 1/2" and 4" widths. This was the total width of the stripe. I then put the strips of wood 1/4" and 3/8" respectively, away from the edge of the sheet. The wood represented the part that was not going to be painted. Next, the reebar was placed on the edges of the wood strips to hold it down while spray painting. I could have used 1/4" tape and it would have probably been much easier, but I didn't have any at the time. Once it was all dry I removed the strips to get the final product.
Here is the finished mockup on the car. I tried many combinations with spacing and sizes, but since the pinstriping around the LeMans stripes is 1/4" with 1/4" spacing, I went with this same combination to keep it nice and simple. It was a pretty cheap mockup to do, before a not so cheap paint job. It gave me a very good idea of what the actual stripe would look like actually painted on. On the left is the mockup stripe and on the right is the painted on stripe.
When the car went back in to the body shop for round 2, I had the Rocker stripes designed, and the Saleen front bumper and wing were installed.
Here is a picture after the 2nd round of bodywork was done.
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When the funds are available, I plan to purchase 03/04 Cobra mirrors and in the near future a Saleen S351 Rear Bumper (Shaved) w/ center exhaust. This will ultimately finish off the exterior of the car.
Page 1 - Updates and New Pictures
Page 2 - Other Info About the Car/Future Mods
Page 3 - Mod List
Page 4 - Timeline With Pictures
Page 5 - The Transformation (Pictures Through The Years)
Page 6 - Body Work/Stripes (You Are Here)
Page 7 - Performance Modifications
Page 8 - Supercharger Build
Page 9 - Stereo System
