FLOPPY MIRRORS

[BEARKILLER]

I just got done permanently fixing the "always blowed flat against the door" passenger-side mirror on the wife's truck.

I had previously tried several short-lived remedies, only to have the mirror swing flat against the side of the truck, when I, or she, needed it the most.

Here is what I did, and it's guaranteed to buckle the sheet-metal before it gives again.

I drilled a 7/64" hole through the thin metal clamp that holds the mirrors shank.

As the shank is too hard for drilling, I marked the hole location on the shank, after the wife assured me that the mirror was positioned like she wanted it for now and all time to come.

I took a diamond-pointed cutter in a Dremel tool and cut the hole in the mirror shank to 3/16" diameter, being careful to not damage the power-head operating wires.

When I re-assembled the mirror, I drove a short #8 hex-head sheet-metal screw through the clamp and into the hole I cut in the shank.

To further secure things, I drove another screw in the crack between the shank and the aluminum bracket, as far as it would go, then cut the screw-shank flush; this really tightened things up.

I re-installed the trim/cover.

Nothing short of a solid gate-post, or big Beech tree, is going to move that mirror now.

[DIESELCHICK]

Good job!! I'm sure she appreciates it!!

[Begle1]

But now, if you loose a mirror-jousting contest, you're guranteed to rip the thing off the sheet-metal, or bend the bejeesus out of something.

I had pretty good luck with installing pieces of rubber tire intertube between the clamp and the mirror.

[BEARKILLER]

I had pretty good luck with installing pieces of rubber tire intertube between the clamp and the mirror.

That was the second failed experiment of about twenty.

I first wrapped several layers of duck tape, then the inner-tube, then double-sided carpet-tape, then shower curtain-rod sleeve material, etc., etc.

The REAL mirrors, on my Ford, are immovable.

I found out just how immovable they were, a couple winters ago, when I was backing a trailer through a gate, very slippery ground, a little "sidling"; when, all of a sudden, the truck slid sideways--KERWHAM--into a crosstie-turned-gatepost.

It ripped the mirror off the door, tearing the inner fastenings through the sheetmetal.

That is the only episode in thirty years of driving.

[DTanklage]