Well, the bodyshop shot the final color and clear on the ElCamino today and I'm a little undecided about the stripes. He wants to scuff the hood, apply the stencil, shoot the stripes, then remove the stencil and clear coat again. I've got a few reservations. First, I can't decide if clearing over the stripes is really what I want to do. I'm know it's not the way it was originally, but neither was base coat/clear coat and nowdays laquer just ain't what it used to be with the lead gone. The second thing that I'm concerned about it the possibility that the hood might show a slight difference if the clear is scuffed, then re-cleared from the rest of the car, even though it will be sanded and buffed too. I'm looking for opinions here please.

By all means, let them shoot clear over the whole thing. It will further smooth out the tape line and you won't get all frustrated with wax buildup along the tape lines later. Assuming the clearcoat is of good quality, it won't affect the color on the rest of the hood.

Mine was done the way you mentioned. The color is exactly the same as the rest of the car. I know it wasn't like that from the factory but I think most car show judges accept clear over the stripes now.

Clear the whole hood otherwise the clear build up will be huge and very noticable if you just clear the stripes and not the whole hood. And yes your concerns about the hood looking different then the rest of the car is right sometimes. Depending on the color, clear can and will make the color appear darker then the rest of car even thuough the same paint was applied. I work at a body shop and see this everyday when we make a blend with the color and clear the whole panel eventhough the whole panel wasnt painted with color, it appears darker now cause the added number coats of clear. I see the stuff that normal people dont see cause its my job to see it but otherwise I would be hardpressed to spot the difference in color from the hood to the fenders because of the body line break and the curves of the hood and fender will distort some of the difference.

Hope this didnt farther confuse you about the body shop and their methods but this is excatly what I would do

Yes. Let them micro fine it down, apply strips and re clear the hood and top of fenders, to the body line. now when re sanded and buffed it will be transparent to any color variations.

Wayne

I just finished clearing the trunklid of my daily driver since I had to do a spot repair & blend the panel. I cleared right over the factory decals. The blend turned out fine, the decals are fine with no ridge aorund them. Now all I have to do is sand down & respray or simply compound it because of orange peel (what do I expect for painting it outside?). Maybe next spring.

I had the shop clear coat my hood stripes on my Sprint. It turned out fine. It does make the hood smoother without the ridge of the stripes.
The bottom line is it is your ride so what you feel you would like to do is what you do.

Just let the shop do what they are doing, but do ask questions if need be. Make sure they sand the hood with something around 1000 to 1500 grit wet. 500 will work but sometimes can see stracthes later down the road. No matter what, clear changes the hue of the color the more you put on the darker it gets. Specially true with silvers and blues. Its most noticable right after its been sprayed, but once its been wetsanded and buffed the difference will be minimium and more then likey you wont be able to see it unless they poitned it out to you.

if you wanted the stripes cleared over what you SHOULD have done was paint the stripes before you cleared any of the car, and shot everything in clear at the same time... clear always seems to leave a "ring" where one coat stops and another coat ends... its nearly impossible to blend it in perfectly without being able to see it. Thats why bodyshops always clear over an entire panel edge to edge rather than trying to blend into existing clear coat. if you did anything, id say paint the stripes on the hood and deck and clear just the hood and deck, dont try to bend into the tops of the fenders/1/4 panels. JMO.

normally when you base/clear a car with two colors you shoot ALL of your base colors first. then clear the entire car in one shot. i would shoot the stripes first, then tape in the stripes and shoot the main car color. then remove paper and tape from stripes and clear the whole car. (no lines). this can all be done in one day.