Mirror Plexiglass/Plexiglass

I had mirror plexi on a lot of parts on my car back in the early 80's ( http://community.webshots.com/photo/91560914/1091562284049730488DOFZXU )

The stuff I used was 1/8" with an applied mirror backing that was easily scratched and somewhat easy to remove but I never had any see through issues as it was right from the company. I did in spots remove the backing to where I had tinted see through plexiglass for special effects.

From what I remember the 1/4" from the same company I was dealing with the backing (silvering) was floated on just like a home glass mirror but the 1/8" could not be done that way as it was too thin and they had warping problems.

What I did to limit damaging the backside was before I peeled off the protective plastic sheeting on the frontside was to get some rattle can silver and after wiping the backside with some alchohol to remove finger oils I dusted a few coats on that side and then after that dried applied a heavier coat. If I tried applying to heavy of a first coat it could screw up the silver backing on it and it would also want to fisheye some.

Anything you glue to the backside with the miror stuff on it could distort it or react to it and if it had something glued to it and it didn't react then it might pull the silvering off if ever removed and could not be reused.

I bought all of my mirror plexi (and also clear plastic port tube material, regular plexiglass and lexan type material) from a local company called Cope Plastics. They had a place in Saint Louis, Missouri and also a place or two somewhere else.

Jim