Mirror clean up, on the cheap.

[Rookie]

The Thundercat's red mirrors were looking god awful, as the vinyl on them was peeling away. So I decided to bodge a respray. I could buy them off eBay for £40, but the point of this was to do it cheaply. To that end, I used a can of black VHT paint that I had lying around.

https://www.bikepics.com/pics/pics/yamaha-yzf600thundercat-97-bikepics-562514.jpg

I started by (obviously) taking them off, washing them down, and drying them off. Then I took an orbital sander to them, to rough up the surface and smooth out any ridges from where the vinyl was peeling.

One sanded
https://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j184/Rookie07/0805003.jpg

Other (worse) one sanded
https://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j184/Rookie07/0805006.jpg

Masking tape applied.
https://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j184/Rookie07/0805004.jpg

I only bothered with this on one, as the other mirrors glass was oxidised and the backing was peeling off, so I'll just get another piece re-cut when I can afford it. In the meantime, I just took it out. You can see the state of the glass on the RH mirror in this picture:

https://www.bikepics.com/pics/pics/yamaha-yzf600thundercat-97-bikepics-562516.jpg

First coat applied.
https://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j184/Rookie07/0805005.jpg

The tricky part with this was not spraying on too much, or drip marks started appearing. I put on about 5 coats for each mirror over the space of 4 hours or so, and took them inside to dry fully.
Unfortunately, I managed to drop them on the floor! They met with a fair bit of dog hair, dirt etc. Back to square one! I sanded them down, and gave them another few layers.

Here's how they looked at this point:
https://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j184/Rookie07/0805009.jpg

Not entirely happy with this, I went out and bought a can of clear laquer, £4. 4 or 5 coats of this, and they're looking good.

Unfortunately, I left one of them out to dry and it started raining. When the damp met the still wet laquer, it turned the laquer an opaque grey, so I tried to buff this out. I'm too ashamed to show the results - needless to say, it's back to square one again with that one.

Anyway, here's a picture of the one that's looking pretty good now.

https://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j184/Rookie07/0805.jpg


Total cost for this little project:
£4 for laquer
£3 or so in petrol
VHT paint was free, from when I sprayed the exhaust on my moped
About 4 hours of my time.

I'll update this when I've got fresh glass in the other one, and they're back on the bike.

[Type_Mo]

looking nice! got pics of em on the bike yet?
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- Typhoon ?0 - Yamaha DT125R - Aprilia SR125 - Yamaha DT125R - Honda Hornet 600 -

[McGee]

Finally got them done then mate

Congrats, that laquer made a difference ay
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◙◙► K6 GSXR 600 ◄◙◙◙◙► K5 GSXR 1000 ◄◙◙◙◙► K5 GSXR 600 ◄◙◙◙◙► 96 RF600r ◄◙◙
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Its pronounced Jixxer!

[quacker_boy]

You sir, appear to be missing a left hand grip...STILL missing a left hand grip from the last time i saw pics of your bike!
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wizzzard wrote: Imagine God just stopping by, tidying your front room up and then quietly letting himself out again. Statisticly more likely to happen than Korn being on here.

[Rookie]

[colin1]

pair of thunder cat mirrors for £7 on ebay

https://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8065263993&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[Rookie]