2003 Hyundai Touch Up Paint (37 OEM Colors)

The 2003 Hyundai Vibe

Welcome to 2003-the year Hyundai decided to stop playing second fiddle and started looking the part. This was the era of the Tiburon trying to out-sleek the sports cars twice its price, the Santa Fe dominating the carpool lane with its rugged two-tone cladding, and the XG300 pretending it was a European executive sedan. Looking at our database of 14 colors, it's clear what the world wanted: Silver. We've got Silver Metallic, Smart Silver Metallic, and Sterling Metallic-because apparently, one shade of "refrigerator-chic" just wasn't enough for the Elantra or Sonata. It was a time of transition, where "Moss Green Metallic" was the last gasp of the 90s and "Ebony Black" was for the folks who actually washed their cars every weekend.

Paint Health Check

If you're still driving a 2003 Hyundai with the original factory finish, you're either a wizard or you park in a lead-lined bunker. We are firmly in the Peeling Era here. By 2003, the industry had mastered the basecoat/clearcoat system, but the bond between the two wasn't always a happy marriage. On these Hyundais, the clear coat is the first thing to go-usually on the hood, the roof, or the tops of the fenders. Once the UV rays start cooking that clear, it begins to "delaminate," which is just a fancy way of saying it'll start flaking off like a bad sunburn. If you see white, crusty edges around a rock chip, that's not salt; that's the clear coat losing its grip on the color underneath.

Restoration Tip

The secret to keeping a 2003 survivor on the road is surgical intervention: seal your chips immediately before the clear lifts. In this era, a tiny rock chip isn't just an eyesore; it's an entry point for moisture and air to get under the clear coat and start the peeling process. When you use our touch-up kit, don't just dab the color and walk away. Make sure you're sealing the edges of that chip thoroughly. If the clear coat has already started to fail in a small spot, you need to lightly sand the "shelf" (the cliff where the clear meets the base) before applying your touch-up, or the new paint will just ride the old clear coat right off the car.