Wing-Mirror Fixed!!

The wing-mirror had obviously been knocked off at some point in the past and it was held on a by a massive wrap of strong tape that looked ghastly. I recently decided to replace that with nicer looking black-tape, but it just wasn't up to the job. Rather than chuck loads more tape on I decided it was time to just bite the bullet and fix it as I can't lacquer the car this weekend.

The metal mount has sheared clean off, but there's no damage at all to the wing-mirror casing and the electric swivel still works so it seemed a bit of a waste to buy a whole new unit [starting at about £30 on eBay for a used one] when there's probably a way to fix it. The metal mount is only alloy so I figured it wouldn't be hard to drill a hole in both parts and get a bolt through. There's plenty room in the casing to hide the bolt and for a real tidy touch I drilled through one of the existing screw-holes on the door-mount so the bolt-head is also hidden away, which also made drilling a lot easier. The screws only hold the plastic-casing onto the mount and there are 3, so I think I can afford to lose one.

Hiding the bolt-head means the work I've done is invisible, but I had to use a 4mm bolt to fit the head up into the existing screw-hole. Even a slim steel bolt won't snap easily, but I would have liked to use a fatter one just to reinforce against those wheelie-bin knocks as it can't swivel inwards, but it couldn't with the black-tape anyway so I'll have to carry on being careful. I was beginning to think the job was suspiciously easy when I hit my first snag - tightening the bolt without the nut spinning around. To do this I had to remove the mirror-glass and motor-bezel to make a small gap to slide a spanner through and grip the nut. The plastic around the nut was still very constricting and the spanner had to be poised perfectly on the edges of the nut to get a few turns before it gave and had to be repositioned, which was frustrating but I got there in the end so money well saved.

As you can see from the ice on the windscreen my fingers were numb and blue but I think it was worth it to finish both this and the spotlamp in one weekend. It may not swivel or be as sturdy as a replacement, but its just as good as the black-tape and the mirror looks positively brand-new, so if it lasts me for as long as I have the car then result!