Vince on stripes and lines

Vince Balistreri was in his early 20s, doing custom paint work in a body shop, when he first tried his hand at pinstriping. It was the mid-seventies, and he often watched pinstripers add striping around color panels and do other striping projects. Later, while doing paint work at a Toyota dealership, they asked him to do long lines on some of their cars.

“Doing a couple cars every day or two really helped my skills,” says Vince, “though some of those first ones were pretty shaky! As far as scrollwork, I think everyone starts by doing a refrigerator or a toilet seat. I did my share of that stuff, playing around and learning to design scrolls.”

He went on to do plenty of striping and hand lettering over the past 40-plus years. He’s striped at countless Bike Weeks in Daytona/ Orlando, along with cars and bikes in his shop.