Parts are removed to ensure the vinyl fits perfectly If you can’t wrap gifts without leaving gaps or uneven corners, spare a thought for the team charged with applying the perfect finish to top-end cars Thirty years ago, if you wanted your Ford Sierra or Vauxhall Cavalier to stand out, you reached for a roll of pinstripe. Body panels weren’t that curvy, so it was easy to apply. I remember, as a car salesman in 1988, applying parallel lines of gold tape to a brand-new Fiat Tipo 1.4 in Kermit green. It looked a proper eyeful. Around the same time, 100 miles away in south London, a chap called Sean Davis was touring car dealers and pinstriping cars from the back of his van. One Ford dealer wanted him to stripe 100 Fiestas he’d called ‘Hip, Hop, Pop’ specials. Davis must have been pretty good because, three decades later, he’s still sticking stuff to cars – only the rolls of pinstripe have given way to huge sheets of coloured vinyl and the motors are a tad more expensive. When
