Sidemirror repair

[pasquinade]

With only a month of ownership (and 5000 km), my wife managed to back up the passenger sidemirror into a concrete pillar:



After getting a quote from Mitusibishi for 440 euros for the replacement (full side-mirror), we tried alternate channels (ebay, etc) but no luck (confirmed with the seller that the diesel version is different).

This weekend I had a little fun trying to reconstruct the missing bit. This is the first time I did anything like this, so any tips will be appreciated. I add some photos of the sidemirror for people who might want to open it up in the future.

First had to open the part. Start with the glass mirror itself, it is just snap on and comes easily out. It has two wires for the defogging feature just disconnect them:



Then there is this rubber cover which is only connected using some sticky adhesive (similar to bostik). Carefully pull it out:



Then you need to remove the top painted cover. This is only held by plastic pins and you can aid them coming out from the inside. It is well fixed and needs a bit of patience.

The bottom part is held by a couple of screws and pins. One of the screws is on the outside (behind the top panel just removed), the other is one of the screws used to hold the camera. After removing these two screws you need to release the pins holding the bottom cover and camera. Once it’s free wiggle a bit to find an angle which allows you to remove the second camera screw.

Here I noticed that there was some additional internal damage… many cracks and some cover pins were broken:



I super-glued all the plastic parts and pins, and around the pins I added some epoxy glue for reinforcement.

Then came the real work. To create a structural connection where the missing plastic was, I made a small mold out of aluminium tape and filled in the gap with epoxi interleaved with some cotton gauze (from a medical kit). The idea of the gauze is to have the glue stay in place instead of gravitically oozing to the lower parts. I noticed that the mix got quite hot so probably some reaction happened with the cotton (or perhaps it was not cotton?):



It doesn’t look like much but it is quite sturdy. Did not try to cover all the holes in one go, just went for the big one first.

Then with the dremel and sand paper I cut down the epoxy to a smaller shape. Also repeated the process to cover the smaller holes. Here’s some intermediate photos:



Looks like crap Then I used some body work repair filler and applied quite a bit over the epoxy. The idea is the epoxy to provide structural integrity and the filler, which is easier to sand and shape, to provide the final shape.



Had to re-apply the filler once or twice, ensuring enough material everywhere. Once It was close to the final shape I started snapping the covers back on, checking required dimensions to ensure a perfect fit. Some hours later this is the result, still with only 320 sand paper applied:



This weekend I leave it like this and will try to find a primer and filler for the final small imperfections (small sanding holes) and look for a suitable paint. The original part is not painted (it is the plastic itself) and is not really black, but a dark blueish grey. I think I will try to find as close as possible and check if I need to apply the paint to the driver side as well (for simmetry). But this I leave for next week.

You will notice that I did all this with the mirror attached to the car. For some unknown reason, Mitsubishi placed the mirror-door screws too low so that it is not enough to remove the small inner triangle cover to remove the mirror. It seems that you need to remove all the inner door plastics. I admit, I’m not brave enough to do this yet (I fear I’ll break a few pins in the process). Sorry no picture, but you use a screwdriver to remove the top small triangular part (It’s held by a pin easy to take out) you’ll see immediately what I mean… Mitsubishi has some of these small annoyances (it’s not the first I find)...

All the best.

 

[TheBunyip]

Hi pasquinade,

Great write up. Very neat work. It will be very helpful for anyone not familiar with such repairs who finds themselves in a similar position. Matching paint colours with the plastic will probably be impossible so your idea of painting both mirrors would seem the best solution.

One tip that might help. Some plastics can be difficult to paint successfully. One way to prevent problems is to use a Plastic Pre-Primer first.

Something like this will do the job. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/E-Tech-Pl...755458?hash=item51d28c3702:g:lsEAAOSwoudW~GSj It has rescued my efforts on a couple of occasions and prevented any need to rework a repair since I started using it.

 

[pasquinade]

Thanks for the tip. I am aware of the need for a primer before the paint, but a pre-primer it's the first time I heard of it (but note that this is my first attempt at such things). When I touch up the small imperfections still visible in the photos I will sand the plastic part all around (with 500 paper to remove the glossyness) and apply the primer to check if it sticks. If I see problems I'll try the pre-primer but this will take a bit longer (I do not remember seeing it in the paint shop... probably will have to order online and will not be available this weekend). I'll try to find it in a store before that.

 

[jaapv]

I think there are chrome mirror covers, in case you don't manage to get it perfect.

 

[pasquinade]

hi Jaapv,

The covers are OK, it's the structural plastic inside (which shows up as the black trim you see around the mirror) that had the problem.

 

[TimH]

Excellent information and very timely...

...a reversing van and trailer has damaged my passenger side mirror; details exchanged but I very carelessly lost those of the culprit so am left to fund the repair myself. It all works, and the glass is fine, but every bit of plastic is damaged meaning a whole new assembly is required.

I'll have to get a new indicator assembly, but your technique has given me encouragement to attempt a repair since I have nothing to lose!

 

[SimonP]

A tourist camper van side-swiped our driver's side mirror before Christmas. Damage was very similar to your situation. It is covered by insurance but we have been waiting over six weeks for the insurance company and now parts from Mitsubishi. Very frustrating....

 

[vickers7893]

I also have the unfortunate experience of having to replace my drive side mirror after catching it on garage entrance post.
Two many bits to consider repair, full of admiration for write up.
Dealer has quoted £375 complete ,painted and fitted.
No option but to accept as claiming on insurance would be hit by no claims and good condition loss of £300.
Lesson learned - be more careful when reversing into garage!! :x
Big John

GX3+
MY16 (10/02/16)
Orient Red
Named "Sparky"

 

[pasquinade]

Hi all,

One more step in this repair.

As an alternative to painting someone told me about a 3M "vinyl wrap", which is apparently very common in the auto industry. I ended up using the BR212 "brushed black metallic" to do the mirror trim.

This is the first time I ever attempted anything like this and the end result is not perfect when looking closely (I messed it up in two places). I bought enough to be able to re-do it once or twice since I suspected this would happen I'll leave it like this for a week to see if it holds or if I should go back to the paint idea... If I get it right I plan to do both mirrors for symmetry.





Some considerations of vinyl vs paint... The wrap did not go perfectly on this first try since the concave areas are hard to get right (the mirror inside is probably the worst possible area for this technique). But my past experience with paint is not perfect either so I'm willing to give this technique one more try... Regarding cost, I ended up paying 73 euros for a 1mx1.5m of this 3M textured sheet from a local supplier. Non-textured 3M vinyl would cost about half (still expensive compared with paint) and no-label brands would cost a fraction (but I hear it's hard to find good quality ones).

Best,
Ricardo