Door mirror, how to get in bits?

[Flix]

I want to re-spray my door mirrors soon.
Does the painted plastic bit come off the mirror?
I figured it'd be easier to paint off the car rather than to mask everything off.
Thanks.

[Dom B]

I have one here in bits and on mine at least the actual mirror housing shell is one bit, the painted section is just the mould line of the plastic. If you take the glass out you will see very easily. Taking the glass out is a hell of a pain though. I can send you a pic if you need to work out how to get it off.

Dom

[Flix]

Looks like I'll have to mask off then./Hissy
It looks as if it's a seperate piece, but knowing my luck I'd break it anyway if it were removeable.

[Dom B]

There are several different mirrors. My car has the folding ones but the mirror i have here is brand new and isnt electric folding but does have demisters. I just looked at the ones on the VR-4 and they look suspiciously like a separate piece and the mould line is in a different place.

[PaddyB]

The left & right mirrors are different - on mine anyhow. IIRC on the drivers side the black plastic bit is separate to the car coloured bit & on the other side they're all one piece.

YOu can get the glass out by prising it out from the bottom - it's clipped on at the bottom & hooks hold the top on. With the glass out you'll see the screws that hold it together. Just go gentle otherwise you'll lose the up/down adjustment on it.

There's 3 bolts behind the tweeter cover that hold the mirror to the car - there also a connector plug/socket for all the wiring that's nearby - probably behind the door card.

[Flix]

Might be easiest to remove the unit from the car and then mask up.
I can see a "wanted mirror glass" post if i try and get it in bits.

[HMG1K]

I had my mirror caps re-sprayed at a main dealer's body shop earlier this year as a freebie, and they are (at least on my 03 V6) a one-piece unit.

I too was fooled by the groove in the housing which makes it look like a two-piece unit.

[Davezj]

yeh some are 2 piece some are one piece, but there does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.

i had one of each and the both did not have demisters, but did fold.

[starky]

I want to re-spray my door mirrors soon.
Does the painted plastic bit come off the mirror?
I figured it'd be easier to paint off the car rather than to mask everything off.
Thanks.

I have just done mine and I had to mask them up, mine where one piece mirrors, it looked like the paint had stress cracked not sure why though.....
As long as you take care masking up properly you won't be able to tell once there done....

Prepping befor spray
uploaded/50571/1248162014.jpg

After
uploaded/50571/1248162123.jpg

[Flix]

Mine look the same as yours Starky.
Lots of masking to do, but seeing as you've had practice and Hulls only 20 miles away............../Hmmm

[eyeballprawn]

Thread from the dead.. I swear when wiggle the cover the gap of the molding line seems to change. Has anyone successfully removed the painted cover?

I have also seen aftermarket copies of these mirrors somewhere that showed the cover as a separate piece, but cannot for the life of me remember where it was.

[eyeballprawn]

Bingo!

http://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/617217/car/526927/1244461/note.aspx

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[ianturbo]

Thread from the dead.. I swear when wiggle the cover the gap of the molding line seems to change. Has anyone successfully removed the painted cover?

I have also seen aftermarket copies of these mirrors somewhere that showed the cover as a separate piece, but cannot for the life of me remember where it was.

there are 4 or 5 screws holding the painted cover on you have to dismantel every thing to get at 2 of them as they are behind the motor that folds it in ,
ian
just like the pic above i din,nt see !!

[eyeballprawn]

I did the job today, it was fiddly but pretty straightforward.

I'll leave it to you to figure out how to get the mirror off, it's pretty easy. A few bolts behind the tweeter cover, but those covers break really easy, so see this OZVR4 thread for how to remove without breaking (towards end of thread there are pics).

http://ozvr4.com/forums/showthread.php?865-How-To-De-lock-front-doors

Ok, so mirror is off the car.

First, to get the glass out, I referred to this guide:

http://www.clubvr4.com/forum/showthread.php?45259-HOW-TO-adding-heat-elements-to-warm-spec-side-mirrors

Fold the mirror class all the way up, and get a flat head screw driver in between the white plastic of the moving mechanism and the black plastic of the mirror glass frame. There is a tab each side of centre that comes out really easily, you can see it in the pics.

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47854

Then when you've popped those tabs out, the whole mirror glass swings upwards and unhinges from another two hook shaped clips at the top.

47857

Remove all the screws from inside the housing. There's 6 that hold the painted cover on. Only problem is that the last one is behind the motor. So take all the screws for that out.

There is one last one hiding that holds on the motor too! Refer to the pics below, you might also have to gently lever the clip holding the motor cover on, you can see if you look inside the mirror on that corner.

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And then, that's it.. the cover is now able to be removed.

I initially seemed to have a little difficulty separating it still.. then as I was trying to see what was holding it on, it just fell off easily.. so all done! :)

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[apeman69]

Thanks for that. I need to disassemble one of mine to try to get it folding again. Useful tips :)

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