1995 Mitsubishi Background Info
The 1995 Mitsubishi Vibe
Welcome to 1995, the year Mitsubishi decided every car should look like it was carved out of a bar of soap. We're talking about the "Melted Cheese" era of design-smooth, rounded, and surprisingly aerodynamic. Whether you were piloting a 3000GT with more technology than the moon landing or a Montero built like a brick outhouse, the color palette was dominated by a very specific aesthetic: high-contrast clean. Our database for this year focuses on the true survivors of the decade, featuring the heavy hitters like Galaxy White Pearl Tricoat and the deep, bottomless Kalapana Black. Back then, if your Eclipse wasn't a blinding Northstar White, were you even really living in the '90s?
Paint Health Check
If you're looking at a 1995 Mitsubishi today, you're likely staring at the poster child for The Peeling Era. By the mid-90s, the industry had fully committed to the basecoat/clearcoat system, but the bond between the two wasn't always a happy marriage. On these Mitsubishis, "delamination" is the monster under the bed. It starts as a tiny rock chip or a dry spot on the roof, and before you know it, the clear coat is flaking off in sheets like a bad sunburn after a week in Cabo. If your hood looks like it's developing a "chalky" map of the world, that's the clear coat giving up the ghost and leaving the base color completely unprotected against the elements.
Restoration Tip
In this era, speed is your best friend. Because 1995 paint is prone to lifting, you have to seal every single chip immediately before the air and moisture get under the clear coat's edge. Once that clear starts to "bridge" or lift away from the color coat, the damage spreads like a crack in a windshield. When you're touching up those spots, don't just "dab" the center-ensure you're slightly overlapping the edge of the healthy clear coat to pin it down. Think of it as a structural weld for your shine; you're not just adding color, you're stopping a mechanical failure from traveling across your entire fender.