Is this oxidation on the mirrors?

[scarface_]

This is what is on my moms mirrors. Its a 2000 altima with only 30k on it.



Is this oxidation? What could i use on it to remove it. Thanks.

[Pathogen]

Looks more like a heavy case of leopard...

Maybe faded plastic... or flaked off paint.

[Murr1525]

I'd vote for faded black/gray plastic.

Can you tell if it is painted, or bare plastic?

[springer]

Looks like there is a shine to the mirror so my guess its painted and Cleared. Looks to me like the plastic resin or something is bleeding thru the paint may have been replaced at one time and teh wrong primer was used.

[scarface_]

Ok i looked at it close and its peeling. It looks like its painted plastic. Heres 2 more closeups





I don't know if i should buff it all off or what. She bought the car at 5000 miles. The mirrors didn't look like this she said. Crappy paint maybe?

[Murr1525]

mmm.. clear coat failure. And maybe the next layer of paint failure.

As far as what to do.. Nothing will really help. ColorX or something might at least get off the loose stuff, so it just looks spotty.

[jmakado]

Looks like the paint didn't bond to the primer. GM used to have a problem with this in the late 80's and early 90's. They would fix this under warranty if you knew to ask and how to do it. The problem is that most people didn't know it would be fixed for free and GM didn't tell them (duh!). You will see it a lot on GM trucks and SUV's from that period. Especially red and sliver. Not a whole lot you can do other than repaint them after sanding to bare plastic and re-priming. Might be cheaper to find some other mirrors of the same color in a junkyard.