I have got the two outside mirrors off and need to take them apart for painting. Is there a trick to removing the base from the main part? It looks like a large torx/star socket but I didn't want to break anything.
Thanks

 

leave it together you wouldnt believe how hard it is to get back together

 

Thanks Ken, I figured that it was a bear with that centering spring detent and all. Did you put a thin rubberband around the nylon gasket to keep the paint off? That was how I was going to do it.

 

no what I did was replace the flag mirrors with new aero mirrors. The aero mirrors go together the same way. I ended up taking them to the local porsche shop, the guy had an allen wrench that fit in it then covered it with rags tightened the other end of theallen wrench up in a BIG vise. then had one of his guys stand on it to get enough weight to get compressed so it would lock, this was after me trying several days and no luck. fortunately i didnt scratch the paint. So just mask it off and then paint it a rubberband would probably work fine. if you manage to get it apart there is a really good chance of scratching it putting it back together