Pinstriping in the sign shop

While some pinstripers have a specific niche that they focus on—like bikes or street rods or classic cars—and primarily do pinstriping, plenty of pinstripers incorporate their striping business with their sign business. That usually means that you do a variety of striping on whatever needs striped, from helmets to semis. That’s how it works for Russ Mills at his shop in the small town of Pineville, Kentucky.

Russ’s career began as a sign painter in the days before computers. He taught himself to pinstripe shortly after learning to letter because he was doing a lot of truck lettering and was getting requests for striping. In spite of the changes in the business, striping is still a frequent project at his shop.

“I don’t do quite as many big trucks as I used to,” says Russ, “because the economy has changed. But I still do a lot of hand striping on motorcycles and hot rods.”