Rear view mirror question

[sstein]

Hi all. Quick question. I wanted to clean up my rear view mirror posts which are all rusty and peeling. I have a friend who has a powder coating company who could clean them and paint them for me. Do the plastic mirror housings unscrew off the posts? Wanted to ask prior to forcing and damaging something.

Thanks,
Steven

[towerworker]

Well they do but you'd have to find a way to remove the glass first to access the nut on the inside. Only way I know of is to break the glass. I shattered mine in a fall and saw how they are assembled. You break the glass you need to buy a new mirror.

[sstein]

Yes, thanks. I did play around with it for a while, but I think it is a single assembly. I don't think it comes apart. Maybe I'll just strip the paint, sand off the rust as much as I can and repaint.

[sstein]

I ended up sanding off the old paint and rust. there is some slight pitting along the front surface of the mirror stems but not much. It looks like they are aluminum.
I coated them with "rust restorer".

Any suggestions for DIY priming/painting the aluminum stems? product recommendations, technique, etc?

Thanks

[peels]

I ended up sanding off the old paint and rust. there is some slight pitting along the front surface of the mirror stems but not much. It looks like they are aluminum.
I coated them with "rust restorer".

Any suggestions for DIY priming/painting the aluminum stems? product recommendations, technique, etc?

Thanks

"etching" primer first does well on aluminum. I used it to paint my boat's lower unit. and its still holding up ok. 2yrs of liquid abuse.

[dandeldesierto]

I've had good luck with spray-on bedliner; it's about $10/can at the big box home improvement stores. With that stuff, should you lose or scratch it, then "repair" is accomplished by just respraying.