Van Mirrors, re... done

[yaric008]

I posted this in the general questions board, but it also pertains to the van also, not only though. I dunno how many of you have aging mirrors, mine looked like crap. And over this three day weekend i spent every waking second working on these things to have them done by tuesday.

Pictures of mirrors and what not

There are before and afters on there and so far i am really pleased with the results. If i had a finer sprayer i could have gotten them looking better, this orange peeled a little bit, but it certainly looks better than before.

[Yardbrew]

yARIC008,

YOUR MIRRORS AND TRIM LOOK LIKE NEW !!! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

How much trouble was it to get the mirrors off?

My mirrors are beat to h**l by driving through cedar trees at 30MPH and gluing my tow mirrors to the back among other things......

Have been wanting to put outboard LED turn signals on them and imbed some studs for my towing mirrors on the back. Will need to repaint them after all of that.

Great pics...great tips !!!

Yardbrew

[yaric008]

Yardbrew,

Well getting the mirrors off wasn't too much of a challenge actually. But you can tell that my driver's side door is always the experimentation door, everything is ripped and messed up and broken on that side, the passenger door is just fine. I learn how to do it all on the driver's door then it takes two seconds on the passenger door. But all you have to do is take the inside plastic stuff off then then take off three of the nuts that hold the mirror on, then if you remove the speaker you can reach in and disconnect the wire for the power mirrors. They just pop right off after that. Getting them back on is the same in reverse. If you look at my pictures you can see some pictures of where i had the door apart.

It takes a little finesse to get the mirror apart after that, you have to rip the gasket thingy it has to get the two main pieces apart because you have to feed the wire for the power mirror up through everything, once you look at it, it makes sense.

The paint and stuff that i used for mine worked really well. The oragne peel texture is acceptable, if i had a real spray gun it would have been perfectly smooth. It's not perfect but then again i only had three days and a very very limited budget. I probably only spent 30 dollars to do everything. Five cans of spray paint in all, 2 primer cans, 2 black paint cans, and one adheasion promoter can, and 600 grit sandpaper. The primer stage was probably the hardest, trying to get everything filled and even. I put the part numbers and brands on the page with my pictures, which i guess you noticed.

Painting on the final coat wasn't too bad but you learn the technique after doing a few pieces. If you don't do it perfectly even it will dry half shinny and half flat, a real pain in the booty.

Outboard LED's would be very nice, i would be interested in doing that also, god knows it would be about a project in a half though. Anyways, if you have any questions i'd be glad to help you. I should have made a sort of... tutorial, but really didn't have the time. If it weren't for presidents day weekend i would not have finished it in time to drive it tuesday.