1996 Lund Touch Up Paint (14 OEM Colors)

The 1996 Lund Vibe

Back in '96, if you weren't hauling your Lund Pro-V or Tyee to the lake in a Forest Green truck to match your Forest Green hull, were you even fishing? It was the decade of the "earth tone" explosion, but we weren't just stuck with mud colors. Our database shows a respectable spread of 10 shades from that year, ranging from the classic Cobalt Blue Metallic to the ultra-90s Sand Beach. It was a time when boat aesthetics finally started catching up to automotive showrooms, giving us deep jewel tones like Red Reef and Pewter that looked like a million bucks-at least while they were still on the dealer lot.

Paint Health Check

Welcome to the heart of The Peeling Era. By 1996, the industry had fully committed to the Basecoat/Clearcoat system, but they hadn't quite mastered the chemistry of sticking it to aluminum long-term. If you own a '96, you've likely seen the dreaded "Lund Peel." It starts as a tiny bubble near a rivet or along the gunwale, and before you know it, the clear coat is flaking off like a bad sunburn, leaving the base color exposed and vulnerable. Once that clear delaminates, the UV rays go to work on the pigment, turning that deep Graphite Gray or Medium Red into a chalky, sad memory of its former self.

Restoration Tip

In this era, your worst enemy is an open wound. If you spot a stone chip or a scratch from a rough dock landing, you cannot wait until the end of the season to fix it. Because 1996 clear coats tend to "lift" once the seal is broken, a tiny chip can turn into a palm-sized flake in a single weekend. My advice? Seal those chips immediately with a color-matched touch-up to lock the edges of the clear coat down. If the clear has already started to cloud or lift at the edges, you'll need to carefully feather those edges back before applying your fresh coat, or the new paint will just hitch a ride on the old peeling layer and fall off by July.