Spraying Corrado Wing Mirrors

[Mr Supercharged]

Hi All,

I have started offering up some Corrado wing mirrors to my Chimaera. I think I have the electrics sorted, have bought the make up adaptor pieces and new mirror glasses etc.

My car is imperial blue, and I have been quoted between £150 to £200 to have the mirrors painted. Since it would appear that my car is a standard Ford colour possibly (????) I was thinking of buying a spray plastic primer and some spray imperial blue / lacquer and having a go. The car could do with a full respray at some point in time so thought I could avoid paying to have the mirrors painted twice. Can someone who knows anything about spraying give me some advice please, recommendations for products and brief procedure? Thanks....

[MADMAX2]

£200 is a LOT to spray mirror housings shop around dont say its for a TVR just go with a skint face on

[s p a c e m a n]

Never mention TVR when asking for quotes, I try to look like I'm homeless when I'm asking about.

Practice is the best option. You'll probably be able to do two mirrors with one can, so buy two plus a can of plastic primer and a can of lacquer. Halfords stuff is adequate, you'll do a better job with cans from a proper paint manufactures shop though.

Get a bit of plastic from somewhere, hang it up and give it a go. Sand it down, primer it, paint them, lacquer it, there's loads of tutorials on youtube to watch. Has the added benefit of being able to tell how good a colour match your cans are if you practice first.

[AlexHillTVR]

£200 is a huge amount to pay seeing as I just got my boot lid stripped an resprayed to a glass like finish for £220

You could quite easily get away with using aerosols on something as small as wing mirrors. Just take your time to mask up properly and allow sufficient drying times.

Scuffsandchipspro (Paul) on ebay matched my colour very nicely. I, personally, now stay clear of paint matching services offered by auto stores that also sell stereos, bicycles and chavvy bits to your car.

[Mr Supercharged]

Was thinking of these products? Yes, no or indifferent?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261089886845?ssPageName=...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350934842957?var=6201937...

or maybe this primer system?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310740389071?ssPageName=...

[AlexHillTVR]

Sounds okay Big cans too

[Dodsy]

Imperial blue is a ford colour but I was told there are 2 or maybe 3 different shades but they are all called 'imperial blue' - I have seen this first hand, I had a wing mirror painted in one type and it looked great in the shade but once in the daylight it was clearly not the same as the rest of the car.

Or maybe the guy doing the spraying was just crap and this was an excuse......

[sapper]

£200, I think he's having your eyes out.
Last year I snapped the petrol cap cover off my daily car and sourced one off ebay that was a different colour. I took to car clinic, they matched the colour, painted it and fitted it for £100.

[swisstoni]

Worth a go yourself. Tons of info on net. Worst that can happen is you make a blls of it and you take it to the pros. They would have had to sand the original paint anyway so you wont be adding to the cost.
But you might even find you enjoy it.

[s p a c e m a n]

Just to add if you are going to give it a go, try to do it somewhere warmer than it is outside at the mo.

[Mr Supercharged]

Thanks guys, I found this previous thread:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

so I have bought the XSC2681 version as used on the cosworth.

Will have a go and see what happens. I'll put up some pictures once I've done it so you can see what a rubbish job I've done. I ended up buying these 2 products:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350744406833?ssPageName=...

and:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310740389071?ssPageName=...

wish me luck

[Mr Supercharged]

s p a c e m a n said:

Just to add if you are going to give it a go, try to do it somewhere warmer than it is outside at the mo.

Going to do it indoors and stink the house out on the top floor.....

[jojackson4]

Don't forget some flating off gear
I still think wet and dry is the best

[zacherynuk]

I spent an age doing mine by hand with a mouth blowy bubble thingy from a model shop. Dried over 2 days, lacquer coat and a good rubbing. Looked terrific.

Within 2 weeks they were as they were when I picked up the car - scarred to hell with some lumps out to the white. Since then I have just patched up the holes! I hardly bother with the rubbing compound unless I am going somewhere nice as they'll be chipped to hell by the time I come back.

I am planning to redo them by hand again, once I can be arsed, but this time I will be putting a protection film of some sort on them. They do stick out and get sniped by stones an awful lot...

For £200+ I would expect them to be bullet proof - either wrapped or filmed, but I would want a 10 year guarantee!!

[debaron]

jojackson4 said:

Don't forget some flating off gear
I still think wet and dry is the best

THIS!!!!


It's all about the prep. If you use poor primer and don't flat it will look like orange peel.

Do several coats of a decent automotive 1K primer - not cheap wilko crap.

Flat it with 600 wet (get the 3M stuff if you can) until it is COMPLETELY smooth - you can use a guide coat if you've got a contrary colour.

Then carefully topcoat it. If you're using a metallic paint then don't flat the final top coat. Go thin and many rather than thick and few.

Then do your lacquer. Again - many thin coats are better.

You should then use a cutting/polishing compound to flat the lacquer.


It's a lot of work - not just a case of whacking it with a can on so your £200 quote (while not cheap) isn't miles off for a professional job for a showroom finish with decent paint that will last.

[potato muncher]

Mr Supercharged said:

Hi All,

I have started offering up some Corrado wing mirrors to my Chimaera. I think I have the electrics sorted, have bought the make up adaptor pieces and new mirror glasses etc.

My car is imperial blue, and I have been quoted between £150 to £200 to have the mirrors painted. Since it would appear that my car is a standard Ford colour possibly (????) I was thinking of buying a spray plastic primer and some spray imperial blue / lacquer and having a go. The car could do with a full respray at some point in time so thought I could avoid paying to have the mirrors painted twice. Can someone who knows anything about spraying give me some advice please, recommendations for products and brief procedure? Thanks....

If they are new mirrors and you are not painting the black bezel you will not need plastic primer as the mirror backs are already primed, if they are already painted again no plastic primer needed just flat with 1000s an paint.

[Mr Supercharged]

Just the lacquer to go.....

[s p a c e m a n]

I really need to paint my boot but have nowhere warm and dry to do it

[Mr Supercharged]

Job done. They work well and being higher up and further out are useful as mirrors unlike the original mirrors which were very limited in usefulness IMO.

[Mr Supercharged]