Liberty earns her stripes!

It’s risky business to try and improve the style of our favorite time-honored classic. See if you agree that we have done just that in the project shown here.

Liberty has always been a sharp Bugeye, but it needed a little something extra to address some imperfections in the paint and also add a little pizazz.

Over the years, we’ve seen dozens of different ways people try to stripe their Sprite, but inevitably there are only so many options. The most popular is the twin stripes down the center of the car. occasionally will see an offset center stripe and often also see some enhancement around the grill, where the stripes will follow the contour and expand around the mouth of the grill, a bit like lipstick.

A conventional center-stripe pattern as shown on Gray.
(Click here to check this car out!)

Another popular choice, an offset stripe, as seen on Midnight. (Click here to check out Midnight for yourself!)

In the case of this particular yellow car, we had a few imperfections on the sides of the car, and that required a graphic enhancement in exactly the right place. How do we do that without messing up our favorite happy face? The entire car could’ve been repainted, but we wanted to save the time, trouble, and expense, and therefore worked on a stripe that would address its particular weaknesses, which were some scratches on both doors a few inches away from the cockpit trim.

The initial concept drawing showed a black pattern. This would change as the process went along.

We started with a Photoshop design, as shown above, where you can see the black stripes overlaid on the car. (That’s a computer image of the stripes, not the real finished product.) Next, we set about taping the stripe, and as you can see, Russ did a masterful job interpreting the Photoshop drawing with a new set of pointed front tips.

The initial tape job to outline the rough idea of the stripe.

Here, Russ carefully lays down a thinner line of tape to more accurately define the outermost edge of the stripe.

The stripe was mocked-up in masking tape for proof of concept. After final approval, the light blue tape is peeled off leaving the dark blue perimeter, and the rest of the car was masked off. Then the platinum paint is laid down.

Once we approved the masking, the stripes went on in platinum, to match the forthcoming platinum wheels that will soon be added to this car. (The wheels are yellow now in the photos with plans to upgrade them soon). The next step was to add the black pinstripe, which is really the icing on the cake- without the black, the stripe is a little bit boring, but once the pin stripes outlines are added, she really comes to life.

The first stage of the stripe. Next up is the black outline.

…and after the black outline was added to the stripe.

The final result is shown in the photos here. We’re delighted with this enhancement, because not only did it address the cosmetic imperfections, but it made the car stronger and more unique. It’s really satisfying to take a great car and make it even better.

The end result is a very handsome appointment to a very handsome Bugeye!

If you want your car upgraded cosmetically, mechanically, electrically, or in any other way, give us a call and we’ll be happy to bring your car here for transformaation! This car came to us from Montana and went back home to Alabama just this week. We’re moving cars all over the country with ease, and they’re enjoying great makeovers in our facility. We welcome the opportunity to bring in your old English car and make it extra special just for you!