1990 Aston-Martin Touch Up Paint (1 OEM Colors)

The 1990 Aston-Martin Vibe

Nineteen-ninety was a hell of a year for the folks at Newport Pagnell. The hulking, hand-beaten V8 Vantage was finally taking its bow, and the Virage had arrived to usher in a decade of "modern" luxury. It was the era of the gentleman bruiser-cars that looked like they belonged at a country club but had enough torque to pull the club's foundation out of the ground. While the database only shows one survivor today, it's the only one that truly defined the transition: Stornoway Silver. It was a sophisticated, metallic grey that made those wide aluminum panels look like they were carved from a single block of industrial-grade class.

Paint Health Check

Welcome to The Peeling Era. By 1990, Aston was fully committed to the basecoat/clearcoat system, which gave these cars a mile-deep shine when they rolled off the line. But here's the rub: those early high-solids clears were thick and brittle. Thirty years later, "Delamination" is the word that'll keep you up at night. If your Aston has spent time under the sun, that clear coat is likely losing its grip on the silver base beneath it. It starts with a tiny, cloudy bubble or a stone chip that looks like a white "halo," and before you know it, the clear is flaking off like a bad sunburn. Once the air gets between the layers, the bond is history.

Restoration Tip

The secret to keeping a 1990 Virage looking sharp is aggressive chip management. Because these cars have aluminum bodies, you aren't fighting traditional red rust, but you are fighting white oxidation and clear coat lift. Seal every single stone chip the second you see it. Even a tiny pin-prick in the clear coat allows moisture and oxygen to tunnel under the finish. Use a precision touch-up to bridge the gap between the clear and the base; you aren't just fixing a color spot, you're literally "gluing" the edges of the clear coat down to prevent a total delamination disaster.