1985 Jeep Touch Up Paint (16 OEM Colors)

The 1985 Jeep Vibe

1985 was a hell of a year for Jeep. You had the boxy Cherokee XJ finally finding its groove, the wood-grained Wagoneer still acting like the king of the suburbs, and the Comanche pickup just hitting the scene to prove that Jeep could haul more than just camping gear. In the paint booth, the guys at AMC were feeling ambitious-we've got 16 different colors in the database for '85, ranging from the rugged Dark Honey Metallic to that unmistakable Garnet Metallic. It was the era of the "High-Gloss Adventure," where Jeep tried to bridge the gap between a farm implement and a luxury cruiser.

Paint Health Check

Welcome to the "Peeling Era." By 1985, the industry was moving fast into basecoat/clearcoat systems, especially for those flashy metallics like Sterling or Adriatic Blue. The problem? The tech wasn't quite there yet. On a '85 Jeep, you aren't just fighting rust; you're fighting delamination. That's a fancy word for when the clear coat decides it doesn't want to be friends with the color coat anymore. If your roof or hood looks like it has a bad case of road-rash sunburn, that's the clear coat lifting. Once oxygen and moisture get between those layers, the bond is toast, and the paint starts flaking off in silver-dollar-sized chunks.

Restoration Tip

If you've still got original paint on that Cherokee or Wagoneer, you need to be a hawk about stone chips. On these mid-80s rigs, a single rock chip is the "patient zero" for clear coat failure. Because the bond is brittle, air will crawl under the edges of a chip and start prying the clear away from the base. Therefore, you must seal every chip immediately. Don't wait for a weekend project; dab a color match and a dab of clear on there the second you see it to "lock" the edges. If you're doing a full repair, don't skimp on the prep-sand well past the peeling area, or your new finish will just lift right off with the old, tired clear.