How to bring oxidized mirrors back to life?

[BustaRhymes325i]

I know there have been many threads about restoring trim to look good, what about the mirrors? They are made of that kind of black plastic that fades to a hazy gray color.

Just wondering if they could be sanded/wet sanded down so that layer of haze disappears, or the preferred method is painting them?

[dashboardmonkey]

sand and paint

[Jand3rson]

Yep, I would just paint them. What color is your car? If you don't want to deal with color matching, I recommend just a good sanding, and hit them with a few coats of DupliColor trim black.

[nmlss2006]

Well... it depends. If they're from a non-metallic car I'd try using a polishing compound first: the haze MAY disappear without requiring further steps, though you'll have to repeat the process, carefully, fairly often.

[BustaRhymes325i]

delphin-metallic, and yeah the mirror is plastic, but I think the base where it mounts to the car is metal?

[nmlss2006]

Yes - it is. And if it's metallic there are very few options. You can TRY polishing it, but if the clearcoat starts to peel, you'll have to break out the spraygun.

[PReta]

plasti-dip those bitches.

[borrihong]

I have used trim paint. after a good sanding, then a couple light coats... they look remarkable

[THE FEZMAN]

sand them with some 400 grit paper then spray bomb semi gloss black. or the dupli trim black. i just use the semi gloss for everything i buy it buy the case.

[e34john]

sand them with some 400 grit paper then spray bomb semi gloss black. or the dupli trim black. i just use the semi gloss for everything i buy it buy the case.

I was gonna duplicolor my mirrors and front bumper next weekend. Wouldn't be too hard to get a decent finish but would 400 be too rough? I was just thinking scotchbrite or something like 1600-2000 paper.

[Eehandee]

id do 400, 1000, 1500 for a nice finish, you could do 800 in between if you're anal. SEM paint holds stronger against chips in my experience with trim paint.

[THE FEZMAN]

anything over 600 is a waste, 800 + is for "color sanding" 400 is fine to paint over, when im painting cars i never bother to go over 320 if im going to color over it, my "blend panels" i will hit with 600 or 1000 depending on the color. but they only ever get two coats of clear.

[LannieDuncan3]

i sprayed this stuff called shine n go. it brought the color right back in mine