Interior Mirror

[Jim S.]

I am looking for a correct early day/night mirror for my early 67 but have come across two different opinions; one says the square button should be gray the second which comes out of a restoration manual says the button should be black for early 67. my number is 1648 which is pretty early. Does anyone know what the color should be? My 4th edition NCRS tech/judging guide does not address the button. Is there a newer version or some other NCRS manual that I need to get which would or does get to more detail? Thanks Jim

[Gerard F.]

Re: Interior Mirror

Jim,

Take a look at the bottom of page 31 (4th edition), says:

"Through VIN #2500+/-, a straight knob roughly one half inch long performs the function. Later production uses a gray plastic lever, roughly one inch long...."

It doesn't say the color of the knob but there is a different design at #2500 +/-.

I have the changed pages to the 4th edition, and there is no change in this section.

Jerry Fuccillo
#42179

[Peter L.]

Re: Interior Mirror

Jim - Gray. ("Square" knob on original mirror on 1476). The "square" knob on 1965 and 1966 Corvette non-glare mirror was black. Pete

[Jack H.]

Always a confusing issue...

The '64-67E day/nite acutator knobs were 'tear drop' or trapezoidal in shape. The native color of the plastic was grey. For cosmetic purposes, the grey plastic was painted black in the '64-66 era, but due to handling overtime the black accent paint often flakes away. Invert and original and look up inside the bottom of the mirror and you can ususally see remains of the factory original black paint where the actuator knob is crimped to the actuator mechnism.

In '67 the mirror changed to incorporate a grey plastic surround for the mirror glass vs. being crimped into the mirror body. The plastic was there to prevent/reduce facial lacerations of the occupants of the vehicle in the event of a head-on crash.

Early production cars used mirror components left over from '64-66 production including the 'tear drop' shaped actuator knob. After the first month or so of '67 production the improved actuator knob (L-shaped, with the long side of the 'L' pointing away from vehicle occupants) came on stream and ALL of these knobs were unpainted in their native grey plastic to color coordinate with the rubber surrounding the mirror glass.

Whether the short run of early '67 mirrors had their tear drop knobs painted black (like prior year units) or were left naturally grey like the later 'L-shaped' knobs is a detail I can't recall...so few were made. But, if you have what you believe to be an untouched, original, early 1967 day/night mirror, I'd say look up inside the base of the mirror with a flashlight and see if there are any reminants of black paint. If so, that mirror's knob was originally painted black over the original grey plastic....