Automobile Pinstriping
Henry, Virginia

Tom Van Nortwick of Franklin County is Virginia’s master of pinstriping, the precise application of a thin line of paint to create designs on auto body panels. Tom grew up in the mid-1950s around hot rod auto riggers and played around his neighbor’s race car. He saw his first auto races during visits to his father, a mechanic and artist living in California. It was on these visits that Tom first saw the designs of Kenny Howard, also known as “Von Dutch” and generally considered the founding father of pinstriping.