Some time ago I scuffed my door mirror whilst backing the car into the garage, ironically to protect it from damage whilst I went away for a week! It was one of those little things that constantly bugs you everytime you see it, especially since I've managed to keep the rest of the paint almost like new despite 30,000 miles of hard driving. Anyway I could stand it no longer and decided to get on and fix it. Here's the process:

1. The scuff went down into the base plastic so it was obviously going to be a bit more than just touching up the clearcoat!


2. Flatted down with 400 and filled with polyester filler (bondo)


3. A flash of primer/filler, flatted, reprimed then a spot of stopper to fill some pinholes.


4. Flatted down with 600 and reprimed ready for basecoat.


Continued in next thread... (4 pic limit!)

 

OOOooo!! Looking forward to the next thread...

 

Continued...
5. Basecoat blended and faded in to surrounding paint.


6. Now 3 coats of clearcoat.


7. After a week I wet sanded with soap and 1500 grade, then compound, polish and wax. Result

 

Woody,

Nicely done my friend... Excellent work.

When you can't tell it's been damaged... it's a good thing.

 

Nice work Woody!!! What paint did you use?

 

nice work... looks perfect imo.

fyi...for others that don't have woody's expertise... if an exterior mirror is purchased in the US it comes painted from the factory.

i had one of mine replaced under warranty.

cheers~

 

Wow Woody, wanna spend a week at my place? Who's paint did you use?

 

Great job...well done.

 

Thanks for the compliments guys. It was one of those jobs that just makes you feel a whole lot better about the car. I even clayed and waxed it afterwards!

For those that asked about paint etc.
I used a small bottle of Holts touchup mixed to order at Halfords. Thought I'd give it a try, normally I would just get a full litre from a paint factor for bigger jobs (see below).
The primer and clearcoat was Nexa Autocolor RPF and 1K which I normally have 'in stock' from other projects.

I just wish I could finish these little 'touch up' jobs off as quickly.