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Thread: Mirage Hatchback Rear Garnish

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    Senior Member PityOnU's Avatar
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    Mirage Hatchback Rear Garnish

    Did anyone here have these installed on their Mirage? I got them with the hope that they would help tie the design of the front of the car in with the back (black and chrome accents).

    Problem is, I can't find any decent pictures of the things installed online. The best I can find is below:

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    Hard to imagine what it would look like from farther away with such a zoomed-in and cropped image.

    Beyond that, the install instructions that come with the things tell you to drill into your bumper to install them. This is despite them basically being glorified decals - just little bits of plastic with a ton of double-sided tape on the back. Would drilling into the bumper and adding a single screw really be required at that point?



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    Ive seen them in person on a white 17 Mirage GT this particular vehicle was traded as I saw it online for weeks... I then seen this vehicle in the wild with its new owner the one side seemed faded the black was greying.

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    Senior Member PityOnU's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DottandDolores View Post
    Ive seen them in person on a white 17 Mirage GT this particular vehicle was traded as I saw it online for weeks... I then seen this vehicle in the wild with its new owner the one side seemed faded the black was greying.
    Yeah, seems like these things come with more questions/problems than potential benefits.

    I think what I will end up doing is skipping the whole "drill through the bumper" thing and just sticking them on using the tape they came with. It means that if they suck they will just fall off on their own (eventually) or I can just hit them with some Goo Gone if I end up hating it.

    Can always go back later and drill into the bumper later on for a more permanent attach if I end up loving them. Can't exactly "undrill" a hole, though.

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    Quote Originally Posted by DottandDolores View Post
    Ive seen them in person on a white 17 Mirage GT this particular vehicle was traded as I saw it online for weeks... I then seen this vehicle in the wild with its new owner the one side seemed faded the black was greying.
    YMMV, but based on experience, you can use a Degreaser or WD-40 (spray on a cloth first), then clean/wipe the black plastic back to regain "blackness" of the plastics/trims. Wax coating are normally the culprit for it to turn white or grey. You're basically just removing it.

    NOTE:

    Make sure you don't touch any other ones than plastic.

    If the plastic has already degraded or literally faded, then it could not work.

    One way to find out.
    • MY14 Mitsubishi Mirage - ES 1.2L CVT
    • MY13 Mitsubishi Outlander - ES 2.0L CVT
    • MY06 Mitsubishi Colt - LS CVT (written-off due to non-fault accident)
    • MY06 Mitsubishi Magna - Executive CVT (sold due to chugging fuel)

    • Veepeak OBD BLE - CVTz50 (+other Android Apps)
    • Mini VCI / Microsoft Surface Pro 3 - Windows 10 Pro x64

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    Senior Member PityOnU's Avatar
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    For future people looking in - I've had these on for a week or so now. They do look pretty good in person, and do help to tie the front and the rear of the car together, in terms of design. I paired mine with some glossy silver rims as well, and the whole package ends up looking quite nice. I would install again.

    Some things to consider:

    1. I did not end up drilling the mounting holes in my bumper - I just used the double-sided tape already on the parts and am hoping it will just stay in place with that. The garnish on each side is actually two parts - the black part and the shiny chrome plastic. The screw drilled into the bumper would have held the black piece in place. Of the two, though, I would say the shiny plastic part is definitely what will end up falling off first, so save yourself some trouble and don't drill into your bumper.

    2. Because the shiny chrome plastic part is held on exclusively by double-sided tape, the instructions tell you to apply a coat of primer to the part of the black plastic piece it sticks to before putting it on. My guess is that this is because the specific tape they are using bonds well with paint, but not other plastics. I went ahead and masked of the black piece with painters tape, scuffed the surface with sandpaper, and then added some of whatever black primer they had kicking around at Home Depot. I let that dry for a few days and then cleaned the surface with some rubbing alcohol before finally applying the chrome part. As it stands, I am not super confident in the chrome part staying in place. I will post here after a few "touchless" car washes to let y'all know how it goes. (Update - Still in place one month and 2 touchless carwashes later.)

    3. Placement has a lot of wiggle room. I ended up pressing the bottom and sides of the garnish pieces into the raised lip of the bumper as a guide when installing them. This ends up leaving about a half inch gap between the top of the garnish and the bottom of the reflector housing. I think that ends up looking fine, but if you look in the picture above, Mitsubishi seems to envision you using the bottom of the reflector housing as a guide and having the gap on the bottom/left/right of the garnish instead. Either way probably looks fine, but just be aware that there is some choice and nuance involved with placement.
    Last edited by PityOnU; 10-21-2020 at 06:19 PM.

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    Member 18slcmirage's Avatar
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    Saw your pic, it looks nice!!!

    My order is comming in a week...
    Last edited by 18slcmirage; 10-21-2020 at 02:29 PM.

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    Senior Member PityOnU's Avatar
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    Just to update all on the state of using just the tape to hold things in place:

    It's not tape. I recently removed the stock factory side sills on my Mirage to install the OEM side sill extensions. It seems that Mitsubishi used the same "tape-like" product to hold that in place as well. What I described as tape is more like a very strong caulk/epoxy after curing. I absolutely could not get the stuff to let go, and ended up having to use a razor blade to (very carefully) cut through it. Whatever that adhesive is, it is no joke.

    After this experience, I am 100% confident that the garnishes will hold in place just fine without having to use the included screw.



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