2004 Aston-Martin Touch Up Paint (18 OEM Colors)

The 2004 Aston-Martin Vibe

2004 was a hell of a year for the folks at Gaydon. It was the "Bond transition" era, where the hand-hammered ghost of the Vanquish met the high-tech arrival of the DB9. If you were ordering a car back then, you weren't just picking a color; you were choosing a personality. With 18 different shades in our database from that single year, it's clear Aston wasn't interested in the "any color as long as it's silver" trend that infected everyone else. You had the classics like British Racing Green and Pentland Green Metallic for the traditionalists, but the real stars were the blues-Antrim, Aviemore, Aysgarth, and Balintyre. It was a sophisticated, metallic-heavy palette that made these cars look like they were carved out of a solid block of expensive jewelry.

Paint Health Check

Now, here's the reality check from the booth. 2004 sits right in the heart of what I call The Peeling Era. By this time, the industry had mastered the depth and gloss of the basecoat/clearcoat system, but the bond between the two wasn't always a lifetime contract. On an Aston from this year, you're fighting two specific gremlins. First, there's the "Aston Blister"-that lovely phenomenon where the paint starts bubbling around the door handles, mirror stalks, or the edges of the roof. It's usually caused by microscopic contamination or thin coverage on the edges of those aluminum panels. Second, because these cars sit so low to the tarmac, the noses are prone to "road rash." On a 20-year-old clear coat, those tiny stone chips are the beginning of the end; once water gets under that clear layer, it starts to delaminate, and before you know it, your Stronsay Silver is flaking off like a bad sunburn.

Restoration Tip

If you see a stone chip on that Racing Green Metallic hood, do not "wait until spring" to fix it. In this era, the clear coat is the only thing keeping the base color from turning into a science project. Because these cars use so much aluminum, you won't see red rust, but you will get white oxidation that pushes the paint away from the metal. The Fix: Clean the chip with a prep solvent and seal it immediately. Even if you aren't ready for a full respray, getting a dab of color and clear over that exposed edge stops the "clear lift" in its tracks. If the clear has already started to cloud or peel at the edges of a chip, you've got to carefully sand the "shelf" of the peeling clear until it's flush before you touch it up, or the new paint will just lift right along with the old.