My coach has the original Velvac remote/heated mirrors that are dull. I have tried to polish them with the result of getting them to a shine, although one can see there appears to be what I describe as a coating that keeps them from attaining a mirror luster. I have sanded them with 320, 600,1500 and 2000 paper; used coarse and fine rubbing compound followed by Mothers Aluminum Polish. IU can get them showing a high luster but with a haze. Over night with rain or dew brown spots appear on the surface just like water spots. They can be polished off with the Mothers but the haze remains. I have waxed them to stop oxidation but the result is the same. They appear to oxidize from the inside out. Is there perhaps an alloy used in casting that contains something of an iron derivative that can't be polished away? I don't have any problems with the Alcoa wheels so I am dumbfounded by these mirrors. Any metallurgists out there? Anyone had success polishing these old style mirrors? Thanks in advance.

Paint em!

Hi Tom
Our Velvac mirrors are black. They are coated with a black finish that looks a bit like trunk paint. Not as shiny as a glossy painted finish.
Don

They have an anodized finish. I had this type of finish on our bus bumpers. I finally sanded the finish off and then could polish them. Lots of work, but used about 3 different grits of sandpaper and then Alcoa aluminum polish.

I have read that drain cleaner will remove the anodized finish without sanding.

I just went through a two polishing exercise for my mirrors. I used buffing wheels, foam ball, rubbing compound, buffing sticks (2 grits), and finally polishing compound. Here is a comparison of after and before.





The upsetting part is that they do tarnish quickly. It rained the two days following and I did notice some heavy streaking and spotting. Then it rained the third day and I swear it must be acid rain because the next morning and there was white streaks of heavy corrosion on the mirrors. I then spent a couple of hours repolishing and then covered them with carnuba wax. I hope this will do the trick.

I now have some questions about these mirrors.
1. Does anyone know the model number?
2. Can replacement flat and convex mirrors be purchased?
3. The flat mirror is attached with velcro. How is the convex mirror attached?
4. Can a new mounting base be obtained that is flat?

I hope someone can answer at least some of these questions.

Back in the day when I worked in the research group at Rusty's alma mater I occasionally did testing for corrosion. First thing was to wipe the metal squares with solvent then buff them with crocus cloth to get the surface ready to be attacked. If you think of clogged sandpaper changed to unclogged sandpaper that is essentially the microscopic level of changing from passive to active for reaction. Waxing will give some protection, varnish some, shellac some but looking at my brass kick panels on the front doors continual attention is required.
Looks good in the interim.

I came upon a very promising product today. I spoke with various people at work and some had used it with great success. Apparently many motorcyclists and boaters use the ProtectaClear since it is the one listed as usable in Marine environments. I plan to order it and use it. I will post the results sometime in the future.

An update on my mirrors. I contacted Velvac along with my pics and they informed me that my mirrors are no by Velvac, but by Ramco Engineering. My email along with their response is as follows:
I have a 1993 38 ft Barth Regency. The mirrors on it are polished aluminum. I am attaching pictures of them, one before I polished them and one after. I need to know if they are one of yours and, if so, I have the following questions:

1. What model are they?[Amy Dean] They are our 6002 series mirrors
2. Can replacement glass mirrors be purchased?[Amy Dean] yes
3. Is a new flat mounting base available?[Amy Dean] These are 9” mounts, and they are still available
4. They are rather old and the mirror head is stuck to the arm. How can they be removed for polishing and replacement?[Amy Dean] The arms might be seized into the heads. Spray WD40 and let it set for a while.
5. Can a longer arm be purchased?[Amy Dean] we have 15” arms or 18” arms.
6. What can be done to protect the surface to prevent corrosion?[Amy Dean] We do not have any type of sealer for our mirrors.
7. The flat mirror is attached with Velcro. How is the convex mirror attached?[Amy Dean] it is also attached with Velcro to an Aluminum plate that is silicone to the motor.
8. What technical data is available?[Amy Dean] What data are you looking for?

I hope this information is useful to some of you.

Check out Zoop Seal
http://www.eastwood.com/zoop-seal-jr.html

As seen in a previous post I had managed to polish my mirrors quite well. Well, they were well on their way to looking like the before pics so I have disassembled them and had them powdered coated high gloss black. They could have come close to matching the dark metallic gray but it would have cost nearly as much as buying new mirrors. The powder coat I used is the same as what motorcyclists use so it is very durable.