I had always liked the extra little touch that the painted mirror caps gave the truck, but since my truck didn't come with the Luxury package, I didn't get the PTM mirror caps or door handles. After seeing guys on here successfully painting theirs themselves, I decided to give it a try. At least it would keep me busy, and the mod bug had really bit hard with the nice weather!

So with the help of some threads on here and other forums, I was able to easily pop the mirrors off, disconnect the wiring, and get to the caps. 4 clips is all that holds them on. I got them off and starting sanding away the texture on them. I started out with 100 grit sandpaper and worked my way up to 400. Rinse away all the grit and wash them with dish soap to remove any grease or oils from your fingers. Next came the sandable primer.

I got a can of just regular ol' Rustoleum sandable primer and gave them several light dustings about 10 mins apart till the caps were fully and evenly covered. Since I was trying to be in less of a hurry as possible, I let the primer dry overnight. Once dry, I wet sanded them with 600 grit sandpaper, and washed them in dish soap again. Now they were ready for the base coat.

Autozone sells convenient sized cans of Duplicolor factory match paint, and with Oxford White being the most common color, they had it on the shelf for $6.50. All it took was the one little can for both caps. Lightly dust them with paint, doing several coats about 10 mins apart till fully covered. You don't want to hit them heavy all at once with one giant coat or you'll get splatters and runs in the paint. That's where the patience comes in, and I had to learn that the hard way.

So after letting them dry overnight good, I wetsanded them with 1500 grit very lightly just to get any built up paint residue off and make them smooth. Wash in dish soap again and they were ready for the final clear coat. I found a can of Rustoleum automotive lacquer clear coat for around $4 at Autozone which turned out phenomenal. With this stuff, I hit the caps super hard to the point where they looked wet. Admittedly I got one small run doing this, but it's very tiny and out of the way, and really doesn't show up on the white anyways. But this stuff dried perfectly, I don't even have to sand them if I don't want. I let them dry overnight with fans on them and they were perfect this afternoon for me to pop on the truck and snap some pics.

Now I'll admit that I painted these caps twice, and primered them twice. The first primer I managed to screw up, and as a result it didn't stick. So sanded back down and tried with the sandable primer. MUCH better! I got all the way to the clear coat and I wasn't satisfied. It was just your basic clear and it dried more matte. I sanded them and probably could have lived with them, but I got greedy and tried to buff them with 3M Finesse-It and a buffing wheel. The grinder was too powerful and I was trying to do it all by myself by just holding the caps down with my hand. The grinder shot a cap all the way across the shop and knicked the paint all the way down to the plastic. I cursed myself so hard for that blunder, but it turned out to be great in the end. I sanded them both down to the plastic and started all over again, doing it right this time. And as a result, they look like they came straight from the factory.













It's hard to see the shine in the light unfortunately. You can also see that I smoked my reflectors with VHT niteshade and the same lacquer clear coat. Again, another huge ordeal to get them to turn out right, but worth it in the end.

Not counting having to paint everything twice and needing extra paint, this project should have cost $35-$40 for the sandpaper and paint and clear coat. I understand that you can't even buy one PTM mirror cap from Ford for that price. All in all I'm extremely pleased with them, and now that I know how to do them, I know I can do it with less headaches if I ever do another set or the handles.

 

It looks very nice!

Although I have the lux. package, I really think this should be standard on all or at least XLT's and up...

 

Thanks! I think next I want to paint the buckets for the handles and replace the handles themselves with black anodized billet ones.



I agree, but I guess it's the little things like this that make upgrade packages more appealing and basic packages more cost effective. Of course now I'm more cautious of hitting branches with them. I live in the boonies and there's overgrown trees lining the roads.

 

So would this work to paint the entire mirror ? Wonder how it would look black on my black lariat

 

You can pull the entire mirror face off, so it shouldn't be a problem to paint it all the same, and yes, it'll work the same way I did these. It'll just be a lot more to sand.

My dad has a black Lariat SD and I'm thinking about painting his caps. I'll post pics when I do.

 

Yeah I'd like to see that because I'm undecided about doing the caps or entire mirror

 

I followed your steps nearly to a tee, the only thing i did not do was wet sand the paint before clear coat, i was worried about the metal flake in the paint. I think it turned out quite well! Thanks for the write up.

 

Is there anyway to remove the mirror caps without having to remove the mirror? I'm worried that I will bust the mirror.

 

not without wrecking them. i changed mine to chrome so i just pulled them off and broke the clips. then the new ones just pushed on. took all of 5 mins to do both. but if you want to reuse them, I'm pretty sure you have to take out the mirror.

 

Well I just decided to Plasti Dip them. I didn't take the caps off. I did the mirror caps, reflectors and badges. I'm anxious to see how well the mirror caps last.