Faded mirrors and rear sails
 

Rosie's Rockets have a serious case of faded mirrors and rear trim sails. Anybody got a pic of an SVX with these items repainted gloss black? Might be a better remedy than Brilliant Red fading again and I don't think it will appear too far out of balance. Also did a search on removal for repaint and didn't achieve any results. Anybody removed mirrors and rear sails and can provide some guidance? T.I.A.;)

If by "rear sails" you mean the plastic panels under the upper half of the rear windows, they come off easy, but don't go back easy. You open the trunk lid, and you will see a plastic pin to remove. Once you have removed it, slide the sail towards the back of the car. All the little plastic clips holding it in place will snap off and then you will need to buy new ones in order to refit it.

You may also need to replace the thin black trim piece which runs along it's edge. The clips are still available. You can also buy the whole units prepainted from Subaru. Any shop should be able to mask & paint the mirrors.

are they faded, like the paint is actually very very dull/flat, or just incredibly dirty, and the paint is foggy looking? honestly, sometimes its hard to tell the differance. i detail cars for a living for now(and to be honest, i despise my job in every way possible), and painted mirrors and the plastic gloss black mirrors usually come in completely dull with absolutely zero reflection if you look at them, but 99% of the time, i use #86 diamond cut/buffing compound, i think it may be meguiars, and just buff the hell out of it, and get AMAZING results, like if they were repainted. if you do go this route, be careful if youve never buffed, spending to much time on one spot will burn the paint, or even cut right through it. after its buffed, wipe it off, and use some hand glaze(again meguiars) then wax. but no spray on crap, use the good old fashioned wipe on, let dry and wipe off. remember, hand glaze and wax are NOT the same thing. if you let glaze sit on to long, it wont wipe off properly, and leave nasty nasty marks. ive let wax sit overnight on a car if it was time to go home, and it wiped right off the next morning. i dont know if this helps, but its worth a shot, and ALOT cheaper then a respray on that stuff.

I know a trick on those rear sails...

Buy some "3M Polishing Wax", some "towel-cloths" and have a go at em. Turns out the "faded paint" is the oxidiaxtion of the paint on the surface, but the clearcoat and paint itself is still fine. The towels you use to wax it will come out red - change them often. Should come out looking like it was just painted. I tripped across this by accident and was amazed by the results.

Nice and simple too. Good luck! :)

i may be wrong, but the only time i get the color from the car on my buffing pads, or even my wax pads, or the towels to wipe off glazing is when there is no clear coat on the car, or very very very little clear coat. are these parts not clear coated?

oh, fyi, the reason you should def use hand glaze after buffing is because swirl marks (that 3-d effect of weird lines popping off your car) show up easy in even light sunlight, glazing before wax covers this all up and im not to the point of getting minimal swirl-marks with my buffing. btw, everyone should keep their cars clean, and waxed at all times. and if you have little or no experiance, and you have a black car, DO NOT BUFF YOUR OWN CAR!!! just trust me. bad idea.

They wont look good repainted black, especially with your tan interior. If they dont buff out, repaint them th correct color. Remove the parts before respraying.