Pinstriping a lorry with blended striping

In days gone by in Australia, there were numerous styles of striping executed on horse drawn vehicles. One of the lesser seen styles was blended striping, or occasionally called 'parti-colour' lines. The variations were sometimes two tones of the one colour, and sometimes say a yellow blended into green or into orange. That was used as the broad line, on chamfers, spoke sides, spring & shaft centres and so on. Then fine lines of a differing colour were added on either side. With blended striping, generally the lighter colour would be put on the upper surface, or the outer surface, and the darker shade on the lower or inside edge, to simulate a kind of shadow.

This vehicle is called a lorry here, and was built for a single horse. It was made in Maryborough, Qld, and used by Denhams, feed & produce merchants. It was built without brakes, Maryborough being a town without many hills! It was originally red all over, with yellow fine lines only. Ken Kohler bought it from Denhams in the 1960s and restored it in the early 2000s, brush painting it completely.

It was then delivered. here, and we sanded it back and put a final coat of red enamel on it, striped and lettered it (in 23 ct gold leaf), varnished it, and returned it a month later. The old yellow lines were fairly plain, and it was being 'done up' for use in the show ring, so the latitude of 'improving' upon the decoration was permissible within certain limits.

And yes, the blended striping was tedious, or painstaking, all done by brush, with no masking or taping, just freehand with care! It was well worth the effort though, as the lorry has won a few championships for its owner.

Here they are at Brisbane Royal Show in its first outing in 2004, and a later Gattton Field Day in 2006, winning the Supreme Turnout of the Show

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