Mirror Refurb
Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2017 6:38 pm
Here's one for the DIY enthusiasts among us ........ mirror repair and refinish.
As we all appreciate the Yamaha mirrors are NLA or those that come up are a silly price (unless you are really lucky). I have tried the pattern mirrors and they self adjust with wind, have flat glass and no Yamaha logo on the back.
I noticed on a couple of old mirrors I have that the conical joint in the middle splits along its length and the joint goes loose, making the mirror useless.
So here is a quick guide on how to strip the mirror and repair it, possibly building one good mirror from two knackered ones.
Step 1. Remove the glass
This is easier than it sounds as the glass is clipped in. But you need some sort of sucker pad to grip the glass and to thoroughly warm the mirror shell until it becomes nice and flexible. The suction pad I used was the base of a knife sharpener (stolen from Kitchen). Gradually ease the glass out, flexing the shell outwards to help the minimize the strain on the glass, but make sure you keep the shell nice and warm. Move the sucker round to different position as the glass gradually comes out. Stop trying to remove the glass as soon as the shell starts to cool and stiffen, reheat. Wear some gloves in case the glass does break. Also handy as the plastic at the right temperature its a little to hot to handle!
Step 2. Repair and refinish
Fortunately the only bits of the mirror that are handed are the shell and the glass. For my mirror I remade the broken conical seat, rubbed down and repainted the black bits, including the plastic shell. To rub the shells down I used Norton Expert fine wet and dry sanding sponge, a bit of care and we have nice smooth scratch free shells ready for painting. Fortunately the Yamaha logo was undamaged so this was left alone. Paint for the shell was Eastwood stuff for plastic.
Step 3. Reassembly
The various springs and bits all go back the same as they came out, along with the new conical joint (made from black Acetyl). The glass pops back in easily if the shell is heated until flexible again. Out of sympathy to the Eastwood plastic paint the heat was applied to the inside of the shell with the hot air gun, .
This is what we have for our efforts:
Happy days
Paul
As we all appreciate the Yamaha mirrors are NLA or those that come up are a silly price (unless you are really lucky). I have tried the pattern mirrors and they self adjust with wind, have flat glass and no Yamaha logo on the back.
I noticed on a couple of old mirrors I have that the conical joint in the middle splits along its length and the joint goes loose, making the mirror useless.
So here is a quick guide on how to strip the mirror and repair it, possibly building one good mirror from two knackered ones.
Step 1. Remove the glass
This is easier than it sounds as the glass is clipped in. But you need some sort of sucker pad to grip the glass and to thoroughly warm the mirror shell until it becomes nice and flexible. The suction pad I used was the base of a knife sharpener (stolen from Kitchen). Gradually ease the glass out, flexing the shell outwards to help the minimize the strain on the glass, but make sure you keep the shell nice and warm. Move the sucker round to different position as the glass gradually comes out. Stop trying to remove the glass as soon as the shell starts to cool and stiffen, reheat. Wear some gloves in case the glass does break. Also handy as the plastic at the right temperature its a little to hot to handle!
Step 2. Repair and refinish
Fortunately the only bits of the mirror that are handed are the shell and the glass. For my mirror I remade the broken conical seat, rubbed down and repainted the black bits, including the plastic shell. To rub the shells down I used Norton Expert fine wet and dry sanding sponge, a bit of care and we have nice smooth scratch free shells ready for painting. Fortunately the Yamaha logo was undamaged so this was left alone. Paint for the shell was Eastwood stuff for plastic.
Step 3. Reassembly
The various springs and bits all go back the same as they came out, along with the new conical joint (made from black Acetyl). The glass pops back in easily if the shell is heated until flexible again. Out of sympathy to the Eastwood plastic paint the heat was applied to the inside of the shell with the hot air gun, .
This is what we have for our efforts:
Happy days
Paul
