T-Locster

Can you buy painted to match entire mirror assemblies, not just the caps? How hard is it to take the entire mirror (again, not just the cap) off to paint? I'm working with 2017 XLT Crew. I tried search, but every time I try to search for something, it seems every thread imaginable pops up, so I must be doing it wrong or something. On a side note, has anyone painted those two plastic blocks on either side of the license plate, I'm getting sick of all the plastic looks. Thanks.

R/
Travis

BoostedCompression

Apparently, you can remove the entire black plastic housing all the way to the arms. Hope this helps.

And yes, two trends I dislike in vehicles are excess chrome and/or black unpainted plastic.

KillinTime

Aw man....this is right up my alley. I painted the entire mirror; not just the caps. I also painted the front bumper insert and the fog light shrouds. Check out my build thread...

https://www.f150forum.com/f78/killin...2/#post5724102

https://www.f150forum.com/f78/killin...5/#post5732168

This was pretty easy to do. The key is to get it smooth with varying grits of sandpaper. It came out great and I still get compliments on it.

You can see in the pics, the mirrors come completely apart which makes for excellent details in the finished product. I even took them apart again later on to do a blinker mod....also a super cool DIY project.

T-Locster

KillinTime, those mirrors look amazing. Does the paint you ordered come in poof cans and you just sprayed them after sanding them down? Thanks.

KillinTime

Thank you sir. Everything came out great. The paint I ordered came from http://www.automotivetouchup.com/index.htm. I ordered the color to match my truck and they put it in a rattle can. I got the adhesion promoter, grey sandable primer, color, and the 2k Urethane Clearcoat. I highly suggest the 2k Urethane Clearcoat. I did some window trim moldings later and decided to save a few dollars by using the regular clearcoat. The regular clearcoat didn't come out nearly as shiny and pretty as everything else.

F175

Interesting, they do not carry ruby red, I wonder if that is because it has a smoked clear coat.

BoostedCompression

Your build looks amazing! Would you share where you found out how to take apart the mirror and grille pieces?

KillinTime

Thank you so much. I just kind of dove right in to taking it apart myself. I never found anything that showed how to take the mirrors apart. The bumper insert just pops out...with a pretty good amount of force. There are plenty of metal clips that hold it in place and many of them will stay in the bumper. You can reuse the clips but you will have to bend some of the teeth back in place.

The mirror housings were easy once you get the reflective mirror off. Using the driver's side mirror as an example and facing the mirror to see your reflection....push the top right corner of the mirror all the way up. Using a flashlight, look in the bottom left corner to see where you will need to put your flathead screwdriver. You'll be looking for a little square channel to slide the screwdriver in. Once you get your screwdriver in that channel, twist on the handle and keep pushing inward. Keep working the screwdriver in and twisting the handle until the mirror pops off. The mirror is pressed into the mounting bracket with a tight fit. The mirror will not come out quietly...it will scream and holler and make some horrible noises that you will not like. Lol. Once the reflective mirror is off, you can continue to remove the entire housing from the truck by removing the screws on the inside of the door. After you have removed it from the truck, you will be able to disassemble the entire housing. I hope this helps. I've been asked many times to do a video of this and I still don't know why I haven't.

T-Locster

How many spray cans and clearcoat did you need and is the grey primer standard or do I need a different color primer, my truck is lightning blue. Thanks.

RX1Cobra

I plan to do the same but I'm going to wrap them. 3M makes a black wrap really close to my color. I wrapped a cap already as a test but you still need to sand them. You can see texture of the plastic through the wrap.