2004 Peugeot Background Info
The 2004 Peugeot Vibe
Welcome to 2004, the year the Peugeot 206 was still terrorizing city streets and the 307 was the "sophisticated" choice for the school run. While the rest of the world was drowning in a sea of boring rental-car silver, the real French flair was found in the survivors-the deep, moody shades that actually had some soul. We've kept our focus on the colors that truly mattered from this era, like the iconic Blue China. It's a color that looked expensive even when the car was stuck in midday traffic, catching the light with a depth that made those curvy body panels actually pop.
Paint Health Check
If you're looking at a 2004 Peugeot today, you're dealing with the height of the Peeling Era. These cars were sprayed with a two-stage basecoat and clearcoat system that was supposed to be the future, but the French clear coat of the early 2000s has a nasty habit of giving up the ghost. It starts on the roof or the hood-where the sun hits hardest-and begins to flake away like a bad sunburn. Once that clear coat delaminates, the color underneath is defenseless. If you see white, chalky patches or edges that look like peeling plastic, your clear coat is officially in retirement.
Restoration Tip
The secret to keeping a 2004 finish alive is aggressive defense. You have to seal chips immediately before the clear coat gets a chance to lift. If you let a stone chip sit, moisture and air will crawl under the edges of the clear, and once it starts "mapping" out across the panel, you're looking at a full respray. When you're touching up a survivor like Blue China, don't just dab it and walk away; make sure you're cleaning the edges of the chip thoroughly to ensure that new paint locks the clear coat down tight to the base.