Tiki Pinstriping

My son referred me to an artist (Mike Tippetts) to do some pinstriping for my truck. I was a little hesitant about having someone painting on my brand new truck until I met him.
Mike is an old school artist that grew up in Lakewood California.

In 1958/1959, his father took him to see Kenny Howard (AKA:Von Dutch) and watched Von Dutch pinstripe a car. He was hooked and he drew pinstriping designs , cars and surfers on brown paper book covers for other students in Junior High for a nickel a cover.

Mike went on to study art at Cal State Long Beach. After pursuing other careers, Mike came back to his first love, Pinstriping. Mike has always worked mobile and never had a shop. Must be from his early years of the surfing lifestyle. He has been married for 38 years and has raised five kids on pinstriping. He does not ever plan to stop pinstriping and hopes to die with a brush in his hand.

I told Mike I wanted some simple lines on the sides of the truck and a tiki on the tailgate and another on the hood. Here's some work in progress shots. I will post some pictures of the completed work later in the day when he's done.

Mahalo,

TikiVato

[ Edited by: TikiVato 2012-05-22 11:37 ]

Finishing touches of tailgate

Hood Pinstriping

Sweet! Old school, classic free-hand pin precision. Neat!

It looks great!

Hey TikiVato. Mike does some killer work. Nice lines on the truck and a cool tiki. Wanted to share this with you. I got this panel done by a guy named Eric Eggie Foust. His buisness is Mindless Pinstriping and hes out of sacramento. He has some of the best stripe work I've ever seen. He did this kustom panel for me.

Wow, nice work by Eric. This was Mike's first tab at Tiki pinstriping. As a kid, Mike grew up carving tikis from palm tree fonds and surfing southern California. He still has some of his first surfboards. He remembers his grandparents going to Hawaii in the 50's and bringing the family back some silk Hawaiian shirts. I showed Mike my home Tiki Bar and my mug collection. I asked Mike to browse this site with hopes to convert him to a Tikiphile.

WOW - he did a beautiful job on your truck! (and...REALLY nice Chevy!!!!)

Very cool!

awesome - cool stuff and nice look.
I wish he was near me in NYC area I wanted to grab some lines on my VW BUS.

I agree Eric Foust does fantastic work

One of my favorite Pinstripers hails from Japan his name is Makoto

Don't forget the one and only Sam Gambino........

This guy is a second generation pin striper..........

Odelay essay . . . nice, nice, nice! Our point man with the brush in NorCal is Steve Fernandes, you all is covered though!

In January 2014 I purchased the new model Silverado. I retained the services of airbrush artist Rick Munoz from Monterey Park, California. I gave him a very rough draft of what I wanted airbrushed on my tailgate. Here's Rick's work:

I then recontacted Mike Tippets who pinstriped my 2012 pick up. Here's what he did.
Mike sketched what I wanted on my hood:

He chalked the sketch on the hood:

Mike paints the sketch:


More pinstriping:

Awesome!

I am not sure how I missed this thread back when you first posted but I am glad you updated it.

Love that tailgate!

Very nice my friend. I look forward to seeing it in person.

On 2014-04-15 20:27, swizzle wrote:
Very nice my friend. I look forward to seeing it in person.

We'll be cruising to all the Tiki Bars in it my friend.