As you guys might have remembered I introduced myself a few weeks back as a new member in Connecticut. Just had a full paint correction done on the car as the paint wasn't in the best shape and wanted to share the results! 3 stage paint correction after extensive wash prep. There was an existing coating that needed to be removed to access the damaged paint underneath. Once corrected / polished CS2 Titanium two later coating with a permanent base coat and a hydrophobic second coat was applied. Rated for 5 to 7 years. Unrelated to the paint correction, the idiot dealership though where I bought the car from painted over the carbon fiber mirror caps. Does anyone know how to remove the paint to bring it back to the previous carbon fiber mirrors or am I screwed in that regard? Thanks!
Alfarari
Full paint correction results / Carbon fiber mirror help
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As you guys might have remembered I introduced myself a few weeks back as a new member in Connecticut. Just had a full paint correction done on the car as the paint wasn't in the best shape and wanted to share the results! 3 stage paint correction after extensive wash prep. There was an existing coating that needed to be removed to access the damaged paint underneath. Once corrected / polished CS2 Titanium two later coating with a permanent base coat and a hydrophobic second coat was applied. Rated for 5 to 7 years. Unrelated to the paint correction, the idiot dealership though where I bought the car from painted over the carbon fiber mirror caps. Does anyone know how to remove the paint to bring it back to the previous carbon fiber mirrors or am I screwed in that regard? Thanks!
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Great paint job!
I am also new to the Alfa 4C so still researching, but I thought painted mirror caps were stock. I'm actually looking at putting on an after market CF mirror cap on mine. They just go on with 3M tape. This one has an Alfa theme and here is a link to plain CF and other designs.
I am also new to the Alfa 4C so still researching, but I thought painted mirror caps were stock. I'm actually looking at putting on an after market CF mirror cap on mine. They just go on with 3M tape. This one has an Alfa theme and here is a link to plain CF and other designs.
Got it and no worries. I am new to the 4C and not up on all the options. If you cannot remove the paint, it may be easiest/cheapest to re-cover it with a new CF cover; OEM might require replacing the entire mirror. Lots of knowledge on this forum, so I'm sure someone will chime in soon that has experienced something similar. Nice car!
Are you sure the car had the carbon fiber mirror caps? Those were an option or supplied with some special edition cars like my 2015 Launch Edition. They are real carbon fiber (if you have them) and have a clear gel coat over the CF, You could chance it and just sand through the new paint down to the CF and redo the gell coat...but if you guess wrong you have a mess. It might be better to just bite the bullet and get new mirror caps. There were a couple of places that had CF caps at far less than the stock AR versions but don't know if they still have them. You don't need to replace the whole mirrors.... just the caps. Koshi might be one source. If you can accept fake CF you can go for a wrap or dip over the existing ones.
@Alfarari
Because the OEM ones have fixing pins to attach them, why not just remove one and see if there is carbon fiber on the unpainted inside. Then you'll know for sure if they are painted originals (which seem unlikely) or someone swapped them for some reason. You may be able to work with the dealer/seller to replace them since the pictures they advertised were not the exact car you bought.
Because the OEM ones have fixing pins to attach them, why not just remove one and see if there is carbon fiber on the unpainted inside. Then you'll know for sure if they are painted originals (which seem unlikely) or someone swapped them for some reason. You may be able to work with the dealer/seller to replace them since the pictures they advertised were not the exact car you bought.
My guess would be that someone either stole them or tried to steal them while the car was sitting at the dealership. The dealer themselves wouldn't mess with something so trivial--especailly when they would run the risk of breaking them while attempting to remove. If stolen or damaged, replacing them with plastic(believe they are shared with the Fiat 500?) would be a MUCH cheaper option. I was looking for replacing one of mine 2 years ago--the clear on the carbon was chipping around the edge of the drivers side cap. I believe it was over $500 for just the one side. Refinishing was a much less expensive alternative.
Definitely strange. The only way to know is to pull the cap. From the inside it will be easy to tell if it's the carbon fiber cap or the plastic cap.
I'd bring it to a body shop and ask them on the mirror caps. My hunch is that replacing the caps will be the easier move.
Not a fan of black cars, but the 4c in black looks great!
Not a fan of black cars, but the 4c in black looks great!
I too would bring it to a shop to have them take a look. Or could you just snake a fiber optic camera behind to look at the underside? I will admit that my bias with any car with collectible potential is to maintain its originality, and for any mods that I might wish to install be reversible back to stock. This is one of the reasons I’ve been reluctant to do the Lars console upgrade, for example. It’s not that it wouldn’t be an upgrade…it certainly would be, but I don’t think i could reverse it back to stock, which could impact downstream valuations. There are only 9K of these cars in the world. I may change my mind in the future, but going against my nature is hard for me. So I would want to remove the applied paint and re-clear the caps original to the car. There are chemical methods to remove paint but they are laborious and time consuming. You could do it yourself. You could also reach out to Beau at designs by Beau, who may still have open slots for a set of mirrors that again would be a massive cosmetic upgrade like a @lars interior and be completely reversible if you ever sold the car. Did your sticker say your car had CF mirror caps when it was shipped?
regardless, beautiful preservation of original paint! How much did your 3 stage paint correction and coating/sealing cost you? I got an estimate for 2 stage paint correction and whole car PPF that was over $7K, which I did not do. Just too much money and then the softness of the paint over SMC longitudinally if/when the PPF needs to be removed is not known to me. In the end, just respraying the car would be comparable if not less to achieve if ever needed.
regardless, beautiful preservation of original paint! How much did your 3 stage paint correction and coating/sealing cost you? I got an estimate for 2 stage paint correction and whole car PPF that was over $7K, which I did not do. Just too much money and then the softness of the paint over SMC longitudinally if/when the PPF needs to be removed is not known to me. In the end, just respraying the car would be comparable if not less to achieve if ever needed.
i was nervous about a post that might infer the previous owner pulled a fast one..... but.....
The price for tht carb on fiber cap OEM is VERY pricey. Wonder if the original sales info had pictures showing the CF caps. It appears that the window options sheet the new oner has indicates that it had the CF caps. That would be enough for me to do after that original seller for fraud.
The price for tht carb on fiber cap OEM is VERY pricey. Wonder if the original sales info had pictures showing the CF caps. It appears that the window options sheet the new oner has indicates that it had the CF caps. That would be enough for me to do after that original seller for fraud.
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