We've all been there.
You've got three choices here. Pass and hope you don't get a ticket trying to stay out front. Sit where you are and drive half blind. Drop back and get out of the flash-zone. Of course the first and third choices offer no guarantee that there won't soon be another 'flasher' in front of you.
I didn't think about it until The Wife was following me up I-30 through Arkansas at the perfect imperfect time of day recently, but the fenders on the teardrop are just big massive chromed mudflaps! (The option for black trim and fenders was somewhere around $500, a little too rich for my blood!)
In fact I didn't think about it then either. Not until she called me on the two-way to let me know the refections coming off the teardrop were so bright her vision was tinted red even behind sunglasses.
Well that sucks!
And since we were barely back home before talk of another or two future follow-me trips came up (after a couple more passes down the 800 mile route she'll have enough confidence to make the trip on her own), not to mention all the poor, unsuspecting Non-Wife drivers that end up behind me,
in order to do something about this disruptive behavior I picked up a rattle-can of a satin grey that so happened to be a fair match to the grey walls of the teardrop, along with a fresh pack of green Scotchbrite pads.
Since reflections off the horizontal surfaces would only be problematic to the occupants of low-flying UFO's, and I stand and set stuff on those surfaces so paint would wear faster and possibly chip over time, I only modified the four angled surfaces (In addition to the rear of the fenders I did the fronts too to avoid blinding oncoming drivers because I want them to be able to see, at least until they get safely past me!)
After a good scrubbing I scuffed the angled surfaces well with the Scotchbite, one full sheet per fender because that diamond-plate texture is tough on pads, taped everything off, gave the surface one last alcohol-wipe, and finally got to the actual painting.
Four quite thin coats, thin as in not trying for full coverage from any one coat, laid on in four different directions, horizontal, vertical, and both diagonals, to eliminate unpainted "shadows" from the raised diamond-plate. The coats were laid down three to five minutes apart to give each one time to firm up and lay flat, but still be green enough to bond well with successive coats.
From any sort of distance the modification isn't really noticable,
but hopefully I won't be high-beaming other drivers in broad daylight anymore!
