I have a 71 convertible and the side mirror appears to be original. The problem I am having is the mirror will not stay adjusted. The mirror has sloppy play in it at the ball part where it pivots. Is there a way to adjust this?
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Re: 1971 Side Mirror
Rick,
This is a common problem with mirrors of this era. There is no adjustment that I know of. To access the mechanism you have to take the mirror out. By the time you do that you are better off with a repro or if the car is a driver and not judged go for the service replacement. The SR has a larger head and gives a better field of vision, but is not good for judging.
The only way an attempt at tightening would be worth wile is if you had a very original Bow Tie type car, and even then I would suggest buying a repro and put the original on for judging. We do not care about the function in Bow Tie judging. I am not sure, even if you disassembled the mirror, that tightening is possible. The plate that provides the friction is held in by "pop" rivets and I am not sure it can be tightened.
Terry McManmon
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Re: 1971 Side Mirror
Rick,
This is a common problem with mirrors of this era. There is no adjustment that I know of. To access the mechanism you have to take the mirror out. By the time you do that you are better off with a repro or if the car is a driver and not judged go for the service replacement. The SR has a larger head and gives a better field of vision, but is not good for judging.
The only way an attempt at tightening would be worth wile is if you had a very original Bow Tie type car, and even then I would suggest buying a repro and put the original on for judging. We do not care about the function in Bow Tie judging. I am not sure, even if you disassembled the mirror, that tightening is possible. The plate that provides the friction is held in by "pop" rivets and I am not sure it can be tightened.
Terry McManmon
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Re: 1971 Side Mirror
Rick----
Sorry, there is no easy way to "adjust" the tension on the ball socket. Several years ago, there was an article in the Restorer Magazine regarding non-destructive removal of the glass and repair of this mirror. If I recall correctly, the article was written by Terry McMannmon. Basically, this involved soaking the mirror in gasoline overnight to remove the glass. Then, a repair procedure was suggested to increase the "bite" effected by the rear ball socket metal strap, followed by recementing of the mirror using RTV silicone. I'd suggest you look it up for detailed instructions.In Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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Re: 1971 Side Mirror
Rick----
Sorry, there is no easy way to "adjust" the tension on the ball socket. Several years ago, there was an article in the Restorer Magazine regarding non-destructive removal of the glass and repair of this mirror. If I recall correctly, the article was written by Terry McMannmon. Basically, this involved soaking the mirror in gasoline overnight to remove the glass. Then, a repair procedure was suggested to increase the "bite" effected by the rear ball socket metal strap, followed by recementing of the mirror using RTV silicone. I'd suggest you look it up for detailed instructions.In Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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Re: 1971 Side Mirror
Joe,
The article you referr to was about changing the mirror glass. The glass is loosened by soaking in lacquer thinner. Gasoline will not work. I did not address the issue of tightening, and as stated in below post, I doubt it can be done. The only way I could think of would be to drill out the rivets and tap the housing for screws. I am not sure there is enough material there to tap. It has been too long since I was in there. All in all I doubt it is worth the effort.
Terry
TerryComment
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Re: 1971 Side Mirror
Joe,
The article you referr to was about changing the mirror glass. The glass is loosened by soaking in lacquer thinner. Gasoline will not work. I did not address the issue of tightening, and as stated in below post, I doubt it can be done. The only way I could think of would be to drill out the rivets and tap the housing for screws. I am not sure there is enough material there to tap. It has been too long since I was in there. All in all I doubt it is worth the effort.
Terry
TerryComment
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Re: 1971 Side Mirror
Terry----
Yes, I was operating entirely from memory on the article and it's been quite a while since I read it. I sort of doubt, too, that it is feasible to tighten the ball joint. In fact, when mine loosened up, I just replaced it with a repro. As far as I could tell, the repro was identical to the original, save for the Donnelly code on the glass.In Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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Re: 1971 Side Mirror
Terry----
Yes, I was operating entirely from memory on the article and it's been quite a while since I read it. I sort of doubt, too, that it is feasible to tighten the ball joint. In fact, when mine loosened up, I just replaced it with a repro. As far as I could tell, the repro was identical to the original, save for the Donnelly code on the glass.In Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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Re: 1971 Side Mirror -Lac Thinner
Terry, what happened with date script in the mirror? Did they disolve in the solution? If I had to reuse the glass I suspect there is a problem. Thanks, Roberto NCRS #30019 RMCComment
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Re: 1971 Side Mirror -Lac Thinner
Terry, what happened with date script in the mirror? Did they disolve in the solution? If I had to reuse the glass I suspect there is a problem. Thanks, Roberto NCRS #30019 RMCComment
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Re: 1971 Side Mirror
This is a shot in the dark from a guy who knows nothing about 70-72 side mirrors, but not knowing anything never stopped me before. Do you have access to the ball or the tensioning feature of your mirror? I ask because my 66 rear view mirror (non day/night style) would rattle loose and out of adjustment. I put a small amount of locktite on the ball, positioned the mirror where I wanted it and let it set up overnight. Problem solved. If you have acces to your pivot point you might try this a stop-gap measure. If you can't get to it - never mind.
Good luck.Comment
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Re: 1971 Side Mirror
This is a shot in the dark from a guy who knows nothing about 70-72 side mirrors, but not knowing anything never stopped me before. Do you have access to the ball or the tensioning feature of your mirror? I ask because my 66 rear view mirror (non day/night style) would rattle loose and out of adjustment. I put a small amount of locktite on the ball, positioned the mirror where I wanted it and let it set up overnight. Problem solved. If you have acces to your pivot point you might try this a stop-gap measure. If you can't get to it - never mind.
Good luck.Comment
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Re: 1971 Side Mirror
Can be done, but there are pro's/con's.
I've had my '71 LH mirror apart a few times. Ball is held by steel reinforcing plate that is interference fit by being 'riveted' to the mirror's inner face. Two posts are part of the mirror's body casting and the tops of the posts form a 'use-once' rivet head that compresses to hold the steel reinforcing plate.
You 'can' mill the reinforcing plate free, bend it to provide greater compression and re-install it using either small sheet metal screws or epoxy. But, you have to question the time/value component here.
Paragon bought the tooling from Donnelly Mirror (one of the original Chevy suppliers). You can order 'correct' dated mirror glass from them (it was $10 the last I checked) and transform a non-dated mirror into a dated mirror easily. You can also purchase an entire mirror assy with or without dated glass from many catalog houses in the $60-80 range.
With a fresh reproduction mirror assy you get fresh chrome plate as well as a fresh unworn ball stud. Judges routinely give full originality and condition credit to these correct reproduction mirrors because they are made off original tooling from the period. So, the question is how much time do you devote to saving an original part? Are you merely postponing the eventual replacement? What is your personal time worth vs. how original do you want to maintain your Corvette? Last, are you making a tradeoff (Catch-22) between originality points and component condition points....Comment
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Re: 1971 Side Mirror
Can be done, but there are pro's/con's.
I've had my '71 LH mirror apart a few times. Ball is held by steel reinforcing plate that is interference fit by being 'riveted' to the mirror's inner face. Two posts are part of the mirror's body casting and the tops of the posts form a 'use-once' rivet head that compresses to hold the steel reinforcing plate.
You 'can' mill the reinforcing plate free, bend it to provide greater compression and re-install it using either small sheet metal screws or epoxy. But, you have to question the time/value component here.
Paragon bought the tooling from Donnelly Mirror (one of the original Chevy suppliers). You can order 'correct' dated mirror glass from them (it was $10 the last I checked) and transform a non-dated mirror into a dated mirror easily. You can also purchase an entire mirror assy with or without dated glass from many catalog houses in the $60-80 range.
With a fresh reproduction mirror assy you get fresh chrome plate as well as a fresh unworn ball stud. Judges routinely give full originality and condition credit to these correct reproduction mirrors because they are made off original tooling from the period. So, the question is how much time do you devote to saving an original part? Are you merely postponing the eventual replacement? What is your personal time worth vs. how original do you want to maintain your Corvette? Last, are you making a tradeoff (Catch-22) between originality points and component condition points....Comment
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