Mazda MX5 NB, Rattle Up The Cans

Mismatched wing mirror paint? That just wont fly.

If you have watched my intro video of the MX5, you will see I mention that the passenger’s side wing mirror isn’t actually black like the rest of the car, it’s a dark metallic blue.

Being a nice small piece I thought I would have a go at painting it myself. I have never painted an exterior car part before, so this is a good time to learn.

First thing is to remove the mirror. Push the mirror either forward, or backwards and it’ll pop into place exposing the two screws. Mine were darn tight, so I had to be careful not to strip them.

My mirrors are manual, so no wiring here, but I presume there would be a plug to undo when you remove the mirror, if you were flash enough for electrics.

With the mirror off I started by giving it a clean, then a real good scuff up with a fine scuffing pad. This took off all the gloss and shine from the paint. I also used some fine sandpaper to clean up a couple of scratches and marks.

I masked off the glass. I probably could have removed the glass, but I didn’t want to risk breaking it.

After a thorough wipe down with wax and grease remover the mirror got a couple of nice coats of etch primer

I left it a few days to cure properly, and then gently sanded it as smooth as I could with more fine sandpaper.

WIth another wipe down to clean it, I gave the mirror about five coats of gloss black paint. I kept the coats light to try to avoid runs.

The black took ages to dry. Its taken about a week to cure enough to stop being tacky, and it’s back on the car now. It’s not perfect, its pretty orange-peely, and it got some specs of dust in it, but over all its much better than it was and is probably the shiniest part of the car now. Not a bad result for rattle can paint.

Apparently a wet sand might help, so when I’m sure the paint is fully cured I might have a quick go at sanding it. In the meantime though it proves the concept; that I can actually paint without it turning out worse, so I’ll try to fix the peeling clear coat behind the roof by repainting the small panel.