Installing right side rear view mirror

[cacockrum]

I finally got around to installing the passenger-side mirror on my '68 TBird and thought it might be helpful to relay my experience to others who might be contemplating doing the same. As I understand, Ford either stopped producing and/or recalled these mirrors because they did not meet US safety standards, so finding an original ranks up there with hen's teeth and unicorn horns. Fortunately, Hendrik Gross of Bonn, Germany (hendy.gross@gmail.com) took up the challenge and produced a near-perfect, all-metal replica, with a concave glass option. The quality and workmanship are impeccable, and I cannot see any difference between it and my original driver's side mirror, except for the metric threads in the mounting posts. Fortunately Ford did not eliminate from the door's production tooling the two, approximately 1/8 inch diameter holes needed to locate the two mounting screws which secure the mirror to the door. This simplified the installation because I then knew exactly where the mirror should be mounted. The only issue was that these holes could not be accessed from inside the car because the door's internal sheet metal was in the way. But after guessing where the holes projected to on the inside of the door I drilled two 1/4 inch holes through the 3 layers of internal sheet metal. They were in close enough alignment with the mounting holes that I could use them as pilot holes for a 1/2 inch hole saw, providing access the 2 mounting holes. Then I inserted a center punch through the factory-drilled holes to make 2 very small dimples on the outer door panel.

Before continuing I should mention a couple things about the screws that secure the mirror to the door. First, the threads in the new mirror are 4 mm instead of the original 10-24 --- not a problem. Also, the provided attaching screws would have been difficult to work with. So I substituted 3/4 inch long, 4 mm threaded studs, along with flat washers and self-locking nuts. And I used a dab of Loctite to secure the studs in the mounting posts in the mirror's base. Second, the spacing between the factory-drilled holes in the interior door panel and also between the two studs on my original left-side mirror are about 0.08 inch further apart than the corresponding mounting holes in the new mirror --- again, not a problem. Using the dimples as a guide, I drilled two 1/8 inch pilot holes in the outer panel, each approximately 0.04 inch closer together than the dimples. I then used these pilot holes to create the holes needed to mount the mirror. But rather than drilling 0.4 inch diameter holes in one step, I stared with a 3/8-inch spot weld cutting tool, rotating it first manually to cut through the paint and start cutting into the metal, and finished with a drill motor. Since the resulting holes were smaller than the mounting posts, I enlarged them with a Dremel tool and stone bit, adjusting which portion of the hole I enlarged to fine tune the alignment of the mounting studs with the mounting holes. I also used the Dremel tool to tweak the location and shape of the mounting holes. I then painted the edges of the holes. Installing the mirror was the easy part. I used a long pair of tweezers to slip the flat washers over the studs, and a 7 mm socket wrench to install the lock nust, after first adding a dab of putty in the socket to keep the nuts from falling out of the socket. The following photos show the locations of the 0.4 inch holes in the door's outer panel, the two 1/2-inch holes in the inner panels, and the installed mirror.

[OlDirty]

Thank you very much for buying and adding these valuable information!