2017 Chrysler Touch Up Paint (17 OEM Colors)

The 2017 Chrysler Vibe

By 2017, Chrysler was playing a game of "Old School meets New School." You had the 300 Series still looking like it was built for a Sopranos extra, the 200 Series making its final curtain call, and the brand-new Pacifica trying to convince everyone that minivans were actually sexy. To help the cause, they gave us a healthy spread of 17 colors-from the "is it gray or is it primer?" trendsetter Ceramic Gray to the deep, luscious Velvet Red Pearl and the surprisingly moody Black Forest Green Pearl. It was a year of high-definition metallics and the kind of deep pearls that look like they belong in a jewelry case.

Paint Health Check

Welcome to the Thin Paint Era. In 2017, the robots in the factory were tuned for absolute efficiency, which is a polite way of saying they applied the bare minimum required to make the car shine on the showroom floor. While the clear coat chemistry was solid, it was applied thin-meaning rock chips happen if you so much as stare at a gravel truck too hard. But the real "Salty Painter" headache for 2017 is the Aluminum Hood Bubble. If you see tiny blisters along the leading edge of your Pacifica or 300 hood, don't go looking for rust. That's aluminum corrosion (or trapped gases) caused by a lack of proper sealing at the factory. It's not "rotting," but it's pushing your paint off from the inside out.

Restoration Tip

Because 2017 factory paint is applied with robotic precision (read: it's very thin), you cannot treat a repair like you're frosting a cake. If you try to "blob" a chip to fill it in one go, you'll end up with a high spot that sticks out like a sore thumb against the flat factory profile. Build your layers slowly. Apply a thin coat of color, let it tack up, and repeat until you're just level with the surface. This is especially true for those heavy metallics like Granite Crystal-if you put it on too thick, the metallic flakes will "clump" and the color will look darker than the rest of the panel. Patience is the only way to beat the robots.