Taping the Ghost Checkers & Flames

The stripes are done and now for the checkers. I had to put the nose back on to make sure the checkers lined up. Actually I had to put all the body panels back on to make sure the checkers lined up.

In left and middle photo, the flames have already been taped and painted, and I'm applying the checkers. You can see the left stripe already has the checkers in place. As I was starting the driver side stripe it was getting late and I was wondering how much longer it was going to take to finish the car. I wanted to finish the checkers so we could paint them the next day. So I thought I would time a set of checkers to see how long it took to make them. Then I could take a guess as to how long it would take to finish the car.

Each these checker on the car was had made by me before I applied them. Here's how I made them:

1. I used the shops glass window in the front of the building for a cutting surface. I would start by placing 4 pieces of 1/4" vinyl striping tape next to each other on the window. They where right next to each other, but not quite touching.
2. I marked the stripes every two inches and cut them into 2" pieces.
3. I made 2" squares with the precut tape.
4. Each square got filled with masking tape.
5. Now that I had a square/checker that was a little more solid, I pealed the checker off the window and placed it on the car.

I timed 15 of these squares and from the time I put the first piece of tape on the window until I put the last checker on the car. It took 30 minutes, or 2 minutes per checker. The above photo on the right is close enough you can see the blue stripping tape with the masking in the middle.

After seeing how long it took per checker I decided if I didn't go home, I would still be there in the morning when they came back in and probably wouldn't have all the checkers done :( So I went home to finish it the next day.

In the following photos, the checkers are all done, the body panels removed, the entire car is remasked and ready for paint.

Here is a shot through the garage as I left for the night. It's gettin' checkers tomorrow!