Restoring/Protecting Audi Polished Aluminum Sport Mirrors

[markiteight]

I'll let you have that dig. Lol.
I just thought that would be an odd place for them to decide to take on the extra weight of solid metal.

Hehe. It's not like Audis are particularly svelte. The only reason Audi uses a lot of aluminum on some of their cars is to prevent them becoming so heavy they collapse in on themselves and form small black holes.

The mirror caps are definitely metal, but I can't imagine they're aluminum...unless they came up with some sort of alloy composed of aluminum and depleted Uranium. Each cap weighs almost 800 grams.

[brettS4]

The S4s of that era also suffered from steel uprights in the front suspension that added about 400 lbs over the aluminum version. So another two pounds in the mirrors was a drop in the bucket. But man, those mirrors are worth it when you see them on the car.

[Eldorado2k]

Please tell me that car has glass headlights... If not, then none of what they did makes sense. Lol.

BTW, my 97' Cadillac has glass headlights that'll never haze up and need restoration, because GM doesn't cut corners when building Cadillacs. Lol. J/k, but my headlights really are glass.

[markiteight]

The car the mirrors are going onto (a 1995 S6 Avant) does have glass lenses. The car they came off of (2005 S4), doesn't.



However all 2000 and later North American market Audis have plastic lenses, just like everyone else. Mercifully some E-Code headlights continued to come with glass lenses post apocalypse, but they're becoming harder and harder to find.

That being said the two m.y. 2000 Audis in the family both have original headlights, have never been restored, and are showing minimal fading/discoloration. It's not like Audi was using some magic U.V. proof plastic because I've seen plenty of V.A.G. products from the same era with badly faded lights, ours have just had above average care.

[markiteight]

I finally got around to tackling the caps this afternoon. I started with Megs #3 (because that's what I had on hand) followed by HD Speed topped with 845. The results are mixed: the cloudiness in the finish is gone but the new, clean, shiny finish makes all the dings and stone chips show a lot more.

Before:




After:



Apologies for the poor pictures. It's really tough to photograph polished surfaces and get the desired results with a phone, especially when the light changes between before and after shots.

Here's a closeup showing the pitting/rock chips:



Again photographic technology and talent lets me down. That image makes the damage look a lot worse than it really is, but needless to say the surface is far from perfect.

I have a feeling that the Megs #3 may have been a bit too gentle for this task, but I'm wondering if there's any compound that could actually address this, even partially. If I could get rid of just some of the imperfections it would be worth the time/effort.

[Eldorado2k]

[DBAILEY]

They look pretty good considering the amount of pitting.

[markiteight]

They look pretty good considering the amount of pitting.

Is there anything I can do to reduce the amount of pitting?

[Klasse Act]

Is there anything I can do to reduce the amount of pitting?

Well after they are restored maybe look into having the mirrors wrapped in clear, matte vinyl or even Xpel.

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[Eldorado2k]

Is there anything I can do to reduce the amount of pitting?

I'm no expert, but I believe that would involve sanding.