Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi again

I’ve just received a replacement rear view mirror I ordered the other day as ours was missing, but as it is an original mirror the plastic has gone powdery.
Assuming it is plastic and not Bakelite.

Does anyone know of a way I can restore it?
Doesn’t need to be pristine as we’re not going for concours condition but would like to improve its looks a little and keep it going a few more decades!

Any ideas welcomed!

Pete

A rub down and a spray with Matt black should do the job.

The powdering usually leaves pitting of the surface, so you may need to use some filler, maybe polyfiller.

Must be plastic of some sort.
Proper Bakelite (which was technically the 'first' plastic) should not go powdery as it is a completely different sort of process to make it. It is cast from a poured resin, rather than moulded.
It's basically a resin with fillers and fibres in it.

Might be worth trying a quick coat of wood hardener! sounds weird but it's basically polystyrene dissolved in a solvent.. A light coat may well 'bind' the surface which is all you want to do really. Don't put a heavy coat on - just a light one to seal the surface.

Cheers everyone

As the back was particularly powdery and leaving dust everywhere I decided to give a light clean with warm water and a toothbrush.

Smartened it up quite a bit but may go down the wood hardener rout to make it stay nice and grey!

Please let us know how you get on.

I reckon just about everyone with those mirrors has the same problem. I saw an advertisement for reproduction replacements recently, but at an eyewatering price.

Don

I had a powdery mirror that had degraded to the exn that the balljoint failed. From memory I replaced with something from an early mini which was more or less the same thing but cheaper