last week i bought some flat black spray paint made for plastic. i washed and then re-did my 2nd gens headlight surrouds (the two plastic pieces held on by 6 screws), they were all faded and whitened out, with pits and marks. after about 3 or 4 coats they turned out really great, a nice deep flat black. anyways, i was looking at other stuff on my car that could use a touch up, and i'd like to do my mirrors next. basically they have faded with the sun and you can see pit marks and white marks underneath the black surface.

i'm thinking the same approach that i used for the headlight surrounds wont work too well for the mirrors. the headlight surrounds are a different type of plastic, plus when i wash my car i dont want the paint washing away on the mirror housing. does anyone have any recommendations as to how i would go about doing this? i was thinking of removing them, sanding them down nicely to get to the base, washing them, and then using, possibly, the same spray paint made for plastic on them, but like i said i dont want the paint rubbing off when i wash the car with soap/water and a sponge. would a few coats of clearcoat solve this after i've re-painted them black? what do you guys think? i also plan or redoing all my black trim as its faded a little also. they're more of a light black right now, i'd like to re-paint them also is flat black, but thats another story.

 

If you unpainted black plastic mirror housings, just sand out any scratches or dings, wipe the whole thing down with some prep solvent, and then primer and paint.

The paint won't come off if the surface is prepped properly.

 

Clearcoat would be a good idea too.

 

primer is basically the opposite of clearcoat, correct? or is it the same but with two uses? it makes the surface smooth, etc for the actual paint? but should clearcoat still be used after they have been painted?

 

Yeah, primer prepares the surface (paint sticks better and it smooths out imperfections) and clear coat goes on over the paint. It protects the paint.