1990 Honda Touch Up Paint (25 OEM Colors)

The 1990 Honda Vibe

Welcome to the year the Honda Accord became the most popular dinner-party guest in America, and the Prelude was still doing its best impression of a budget supercar. It was an era of peak mechanical reliability, but the aesthetics were shifting. We've focused our attention on the ultimate survivor of the 1990 catalog: Granada Black Metallic. Back then, if you weren't driving a Honda in this deep, sophisticated metallic, you were probably staring at one in the rearview mirror of your more expensive-and less reliable-European coupe.

Paint Health Check

Now, let's talk shop. If you're looking at a 1990 Honda today, you're likely staring at "The Peeling Era." This was the dawn of the mass-market clear coat, and let's just say the chemistry wasn't quite ready for thirty years of sun. Honda's factory finish from this period is notorious for "delamination"-that's a fancy way of saying your clear coat is lifting off the basecoat in giant, flaky sheets. It starts with a little white cloudiness on the roof or the trunk, and before you know it, your Granada Black is looking like it's got a bad case of road-salt sunburn.

Restoration Tip

Here is the gospel: Seal your chips immediately before the clear lifts. Once moisture and air get under that top layer at the edge of a rock chip, the bond is toast, and the peeling will spread like a wildfire. If you see a nick in the finish, don't wait for the weekend. Clean it, dabs some fresh paint in there, and lock it down. Once the clear coat starts to turn "chalky" or white at the edges, you aren't just touching up a chip anymore-you're fighting a losing battle against gravity. Keep it sealed, and that metallic will actually stay under the clear where it belongs.