Tinted Clear on Just Side Mirrors?

I have spent the last couple days on a black Mx-5 and oddly enough when polishing the side view mirrors my pads turned black. Not quite as black as they would if the paint was SS but more like it had tinted clear...

Have any of you seen something like this?

 

Are you sure it isn't black plastic?

 

Nope.. They did have black plastic edges but those got taped... I swear this was weird... When I saw my pads the first thing I thought was that I must have hit some plastic but it was all taped up (as it should be):doh:

 

That does sounds odd Deep Gloss, I would agree with you sounds like tinted clear coat but maybe your not getting as much transfer due to the surface area, I mean after all your only doing a small mirror right...but that's just my :2cents:

Curious, do you have any pictures you could share of the pad and the mirror?

 

Maybe they've been replaced, and used to be painted some other color?

I've experienced something similar on a Trailblazer SS. The whole truck polished up just like any other basecoat/clearcoat black Trailblazer. Except the front bumper: the pad came up black immediately. And not just a little bit, either - like, black as night, in seconds.

We ended up coming to the conclusion that either 1. the vehicle left the factory with an extremely poor paint job, or 2. It had been in an accident. The paint readings on the whole truck were on the thick side, but not "obvious crash repair" thick. There were lots and lots of problems under the clear coat on that one too. So, the owner leveraged the fact that it was a certified pre-owned vehicle, and returned it.

 

Funny you say that because the same notion crossed my mind..

I have been so busy I haven't had the time for a proper write up so I didn't get a picture of the pads before I washed them... I will get some pics of the car/mirror when I start back up tomorrow.. They came out great but I was just like :shead:

 

that would have been what I would have thought was well but when I interviewed the customer we covered the topic of repairs and he is the original owner and said there have been none.

ODD!!:doh:

 

I think you're on your own with this one :lol:

 

ha ha... me thinks you are right...

Everything ended well except I am left scratching my head

 

^^^:shead:

 

mmm..interesting, look forward to the write up :thumb: Very interesting :shead:

 

Here's the closest I can come to a write :coffee:up mi Amigo...:sorry:

Below is the odd mirror housing, a sunburst (gotta have one of those) and a couple beauty shots.

 

Nice work Jason. It's not uncommon for many OEM suppliers to try reducing their costs by only using single stage finishes on trim pieces like mirrors, moldings and handles. I see it all the time. There's really no benefit to using a tinted clear for these applications.

 

I knew there had to be some logical explanation for it...I wouldn't think it would make make much sense to use tinted clear. Only reason I ended up thinking it may be tinted clear was that my pads didn't come up as black as I would have expected from SS BUT, like Nica suggested the mirror housings are a rather small peice so that explains the relatively little amount of black on my pads...

Thanks for sharing your knowledge Dave!