Old mirrors


  #1  
Old 06-19-03, 11:14 AM
bitoffalot
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Old mirrors

Is there anything you can do to clean old mirrors? I have several closet doors with mirror inserts, but the mirrors look horrible. If they can't be cleaned, can they be replaced with our replacing the entire door?
 
  #2  
Old 06-19-03, 05:32 PM
T
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Door mirrors

Mirror backing tends to deteriorate over time and mirrors looky foggy. Distmantling door to replace mirrors would be a big job. Perhaps mounting plate mirrors over old mirrors, using mirror clips would be an option. Check at your local glass & mirror shop.

If you live in a turn of the century home, the aged mirrors add value to your home. Enjoy them.
 
  #3  
Old 06-21-03, 06:53 AM
SalvageCzar
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If the mirrors are real inserts - held in by mouldings rather than mounted to the face of the door - you have one of the most sought after type of door there is. They're very popular and one of the most requested items at my salvage yard. Hold on to them, twelvepole's correct - they add value - and charm to the home.

Mirrors are two part objects: the glass and the backing - commonly called silvering.

Is the problem in the glass? Old glass and mirrors were made by blowing cylinders and then slicing them open into sheets - so as a result they can have waves and distortions and tend to "gray" with age. There's nothing you can do about that - and IMHO you really don't want to - those flaws add value.

Is the problem the silvering? The silvering process with the passage of time hasn't changed all that much - but the materials used in the old methods tend to give out with time from exposure to sunlight, changes in room temperature, humidity, and from common cleaning solvents. Failing silvering is usually the appearance of specs, spiderweb type cracks, blacking, or a gray dullness. Here's where you can do something - and some of it's a DIY project.

Remove your doors and place them flat on sawhorses or a work bench, and with safety glasses and gloves, very carefully with lots of patience and steady hands, remove the mouldings to get at the mirror inserts. Once you get them out, take the mirror sections to a mirror refinishing company. (There is no DIY way to fix the silvering on mirrors. There are patch kits being sold, and some people say that you can use aluminum foil and clear nailpolish - but that stuff just doesn't work). The silvering shop will resilver them for you. They wash off the old material with acid, and then recoat and seal them with new. That's the non-DIY part. The mirrors will look like new when re-installed.

Of course, you can just take the doors to have new mirrors installed or the old ones resilvered. It probably boils down to how much time you have and how deep your pockets are.
 
 

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