why did this happen?

[jfoldbar]

so heres a weird one that happened to me the other day wondering if theres any ideas why?

driving along in my (brand new) truck the other day, and the mirror clipped a few tree leaves hanging slightly on the road. very small so didnt think anything of it. there was a few (what looked like dirty water spots) on the mirror and passenger window, but so small i didnt care.

when i got home i had a closer look at the brown spots on the mirror, and it was actually rust spots that have penetrated the glass in the mirror, meaning it cant clean off. the same brown spots on the passenger window, and a few on the paint, rubbed strait off.

any idea what could have been in the tree to make the glass in the mirror rust immediately?

next time im there im gunna check which kind of tree it is.

[DrP]

If it's rust it's more likely coming through the thin mirror veneer.

 

Difficult to say without looking at it, but it is obviously not the mirror itself corroding - so I would say it is either coming through the thin coating on the mirror or specks of the coating pulled off when you rubbed off the sap...  some of the coating could have come off with it if it stuck to the sao...  you don't have this on your window because it is just glass and the paint work is resistant to it anyway.

 

Edited March 29, 2018 by DrP

[Strange]

I can think of two possibilities:

1. The vibration caused the last of the silvering to come away from the glass so the rust spots became visible.

2. The rust spots were always there in the mirror but you only noticed them when you examined it this time because of the spots on the windows, checking for damage, etc.

I don't think there is any connection between the rust spots in the mirror and the brown spots on the windows (dead bugs? tree sap? pollen?)

I also think we can eliminate the tree causing instant rust as a possibility.

[DrP]

The silver veneer coming off gets my vote.

[jfoldbar]

On 29/03/2018 at 1:55 AM, Strange said:

 

I don't think there is any connection between the rust spots in the mirror and the brown spots on the windows (dead bugs? tree sap? pollen?)

 

the brown spots came from the tree.  like water or sap.

they are also the exact same spots that are rusty.

 

 

 

 

a few have said the mirror coating. however on a mirror, the coating is behind the glass. it is the actual glass that has been penetrated with rust.

 

 

 

it looks the same as the sparks that come from grinder steel cutting, that melt the glass when the sparks hit. however it came from the tree.

[Frank]

22 minutes ago, jfoldbar said:

it looks the same as the sparks that come from grinder steel cutting, that melt the glass when the sparks hit. however it came from the tree.

Maybe the mirror is not glass and the plastic got melted, maybe a combination of sunlight and light absorbing material or chemical reaction that melts plastic?

 

Or a protective film over the mirror that can be removed since it's a new truck?

 

[Strange]

1 hour ago, jfoldbar said:

they are also the exact same spots that are rusty.

You mean they look very similar. 

Unless you have done a detailed physical and chemical analysis that says they are identical?

But perhaps I am being unfair () maybe the brown spots on the glass were drops of rusty water that got knocked out of the mirror.

1 hour ago, jfoldbar said:

it is the actual glass that has been penetrated with rust.

Interesting. What do you base this conclusion on? Is there a hole through the glass where the rust spots are? Is the mirror made of glass or some sort of hard plastic?