Parking Lot Stripping

Did you try the Artline®400XF opaque white paint marker?

They come with a bullet tip and can be built up line by line until they look "right."

Sorry, I don't seem to have a photo of my grade crossing.

Ten demerits for me. 

Paul,  Next time you're out and about, measure the distance between the lines.  Convert that distance to inches and divide by 48.  That will give you the distance in inches between the lines on your layout.  If the distance is 120 inches, divided by 48 gives you 2.5" between lines in the parking lot of your layout.  John in Lansing, ILL

I'm sure there's lots of ways to stripe a parking lot and road way but here's how I do it and look very good.  Sorry but no pics as I'm building a new layout.  Anyway here's how I do it.

1. Completely mask the area with 1 1/2" blue painters tape.  Butt the tape seams like you would wall paper and don't overlap it.

2. Using a very fine tip pen draw your lines using a steel straight edge.

3. Using a new single edge razor blade and a steel straight edge cut the lines out.  

4. Once all the cut out lines are removed, take a popsicle stick and go over the cut outs to make sure the masked area is firmly in place so there's no paint seepage.  Now you're ready to apply the lines.

5. The best paint I've found is Bic Wite-Out correction fluid.  It will give a nice flat finish.  I find the 2 coats looks good.  Good luck with your project.

NOTE - The Wite-Out comes with a small foam brush attached to handle.  Don't use it but instead use a flat tip artist brush.  It does a much better job.

   Real life. About 60" at the smallest. Measure the lot, divide by how tight you would want the guides to be with 60" being the minimum for tiny compacts and up to about 100" if you have a bunch of Humvees or Ferraris to showcase. If the row is longer than about 15 "medium" spaces, tighter or wider spaces matter during Holidays , you can gain a spot or two each row keepnig it tighter.

  Depending on your intent, you may want pack some cars tight at a gas station, or go wider to show off the hot rod model cars at the diner, or wide at a truckstop, etc..

I did some Vehicle Aquistion & Lateral Entry Technician work. Some Valet companies are a bit more than a punk with an open palmed "Thank you Sir". Maximizing parking to suit a company or event's need is important to maximize business.

Parking Lot Stripping

Really?  Think of the children.....

mwb posted:

Parking Lot Stripping

Really?  Think of the children.....

A standard parking space is 16' long X 8' wide. Any variation +- is usually due to the number of spots required by code. My facility has some as narrow as 7'6".

I used white pinstripe tape to make stop bars for a RR crossing. Sure it would work for parking lines too.

Plenty of scale calculators on line. Just enter the 1:1 dimensions and it will spit out the scale size.

I use a white "Artist" pencil (also called a "grease" pencil). I think it gives a "natural" look.

I used Pinstripping.  It comes in different widths.  I used it for the center road dividers, pedestrian crossing, etc.  I just pick different widths depending what I am striping.  Plus if you make a mistake it comes right off and you can try again.  Paint is more of a problem to fix.

I agree with Sean.  I bought 3/16" double stripe.  As I recall 150' was $10.00. Cuts in half for single stripe, and pulls up easy if you don't like what you did.  Azgary

mwb posted:

Parking Lot Stripping

Really?  Think of the children.....

Oh please... the children shouldn't be playing in the parking lot in the first place 

rattler21 posted:

Paul,  Next time you're out and about, measure the distance between the lines.  Convert that distance to inches and divide by 48.  That will give you the distance in inches between the lines on your layout.  If the distance is 120 inches, divided by 48 gives you 2.5" between lines in the parking lot of your layout.  John in Lansing, ILL

Thanks John, this was really rather helpful. I was actually out and about this morning and measured a few spots. In northeast PA, seems like 104" is standard. Luckily the Mets are already out of the running this year - the spots out at Shea are awfully tight, even for my old Subaru Forester... at times, needed a shoehorn to get into a spot!!!

Thanks everyone for the kind and informative replies. I really like the idea of the pinstripe tape, especially since my "asphalt" is black foam sheets which I think might be somewhat porous, making paint or white out (had no idea they still made that stuff) problematic.

Thanks again.

Where does one find pinstripe sheets? Home Depot, hardware stores, or Michael's?

I used to buy mine at a local auto parts store, but they no longer carry them in stock, so I now buy them on Amazon.  Just type in "pin striping" and you will get lots of them.

Like PeterA, I ordered some from Amazon. I ordered the brand suggested by Azgary - expected delivery on Friday.

Bought mine at PepBoys.