2013 Smart Touch Up Paint (10 OEM Colors)

The 2013 Smart Vibe

Welcome to 2013, the year everyone decided their car should look like a piece of consumer electronics. While the rest of the world was busy waiting in line for the next iPhone, Smart was busy proving that you could fit a whole personality into a parking space meant for a motorcycle. With ten distinct colors in our vault-including the ever-popular Crystal White and the daringly experimental Light Green Metallic (matt)-the Fortwo was essentially a rolling mood ring. It was a time of "luxury-lite" aesthetics, where high-gloss Deep Black lived right alongside those early, finicky matte finishes. It was the peak of the "pod" era, and honestly, if you weren't driving a car that could fit in a freight elevator, were you even living in the future?

Paint Health Check

Now, let's talk shop. By 2013, we were firmly in the Thin Paint Era. The robots in Hambach were calibrated for maximum efficiency, meaning they applied the absolute bare minimum amount of clear coat required to survive the boat ride over. On a Fortwo, this is a double-edged sword. You've got paint trying to stick to flexible plastic panels while the Tridion Silver Metallic safety cell is actual metal. These materials expand and contract at different rates in the sun, which leads to "Robot Efficiency" syndrome: the clear coat is so thin and brittle that it can't keep up with the plastic's movement. If you've got Rally Red, you already know the struggle-that clear coat loves to delaminate and flake off like a bad sunburn once a single rock chip gives it an opening.

Restoration Tip

When you're touching up a 2013 Smart, remember: you are fighting a battle of microns. Because factory paint from this decade is so incredibly thin, you cannot just "blob" a repair and expect it to look right. Build your layers slowly. If you try to fill a chip in one heavy pass, the paint won't level correctly and you'll end up with a raised bump that looks like a zit on a smooth face. Apply a paper-thin layer, let it flash off, and repeat. This is especially vital for the Dark Gray Metallic (matt) finishes; matte paint is notoriously unforgiving, and the only way to keep that flat look is to keep your repair layers thin and uniform. Don't rush it-patience is the only thing that hides the ghost of the factory robots.