In my never-ending quest to clean up my crewcab, the side mirrors were a source of annoyance because NOS OEM side mirrors are just about impossible to come by these days, and the aftermarket China specials end up fading and the chrome pitting in less than 2-3 months.
After one of my China side mirrors had the support arm shear off inside the door after just 800-900 miles of driving around town, I knew that going back to the OEM side mirrors was going to be the only viable option. Because of this, I started playing around with how to refurbish these mirrors to get them looking good again.
I made sure to start out with a mirror that had a decently clean chrome panel on the front, and once I hit that with a little polishing compound, I got that shined up pretty nice. Then for the black plastic portion of the mirror, I made sure to find one where the plastic was not degraded from the sun. OK if it's faded/whitened a bit, but you just have to find one where the plastic itself hasn't started to break down/disintegrate. Here's the mirror I started with. Pretty standard junkyard part that I sourced off eBay for about $45.
Then I pulled the mirror apart. I didn't have to de-pin the connector and pull the mirror motor out of the housing to do this, but I chose to since I wanted to swap in the mirror motor from my existing mirror. Here are the pieces after I pulled everything apart and gave them a few light coats of paint. I ended up using Duplicolor bumper and trim paint since the finish most closely resembles the black plastic finish on the OEM mirrors.
Once everything had a chance to properly dry, here are the mirrors after reassembly:
And here it is installed back on the truck:
Overall I'm pretty pleased with the result. An OEM mirror that looks close to new again, and should hold up fairly well. I figure worst case, I can always hit it with another coat of bumper/trim paint if it starts to fade or look a bit worn.
Refurbishing OEM Side Mirrors
- tcm glx
- Peanut Butter
- Posts: 7303
- Joined: Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:19 am
- Bronco Info: 93 Ford Bronco 5.8
- Location: Riverside Ca
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Re: Refurbishing OEM Side Mirrors
Over the top. I expected nothing less. Well done!!!