Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015 — I bought a vintage (i.e. ancient) Beugler striping tool set as reported in this space earlier, and it arrived a couple days ago. Boy howdy, it REEKS of 
“vintage” … I think this one was one of the first Samuel Beugler sold after he received his patent on the tool in 1935. The one I have is identical to the patent drawing.
The striping heads for the tool are a mishmash of widths, none of which are exactly what I’m looking for. There’s a number 25 (1/32″), a No. 43 (3/64″) and a No. 73 (3/32″). I also received an adapter for the larger diameter Beugler striping tool that allows me to use those larger heads. The one large striping head I received is a No. 180 (13/64″), which is very wide.
The width I’m looking for is No. 57, which is 1/16″ of an inch. Hey I only paid $20 for it, so its been worth its price just in the learning curve.
There’s other issues with the Beugler … the striping heads are NOT as snug fit; in fact, they fall off. The plunger inside is made of cork rather than rubber, and the cork has dried out and the plunger doesn’t seal (at least after its dried out for 40 years). My guess is that some paint thinner would “plump up” the plunger. Keeping the striping heads on may be a little more tricky. It isn’t so much keeping them on that worries me, its the fact that they can also rotate a few degrees left and right of center …. the last thing I want is a stripe that’s varying in width due to not keeping the wheel in good contact with the surface.
But we’re not talking about striping a semi here … we’re talking about a 3-1/2 x 6 inch pieces of steel.
I tried a little gold pinstriping paint in the larger striping head, and it does lay a very nice bead of paint. Striping the base won’t take long once I have the right tool. The No. 43 head is just a tad smaller than what I thought I needed, so I think I’m going to do some tests with it and see if the striping approximately matches the width Vibroplex used. The test stripes I did looked good and laid really flat once dry, so I think once clear coated they’ll look excellent. I’m wondering about a urethane clear or a two-part clear with hardener. That would give me a harder surface to wet sand and polish, perhaps.
Well, enough of this for tonight. I still don’t have the layout pattern set for the holes.