Restoration Wednesday, Mirror Mirror on the Stalk

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They make reproduction mirrors for just about everything. A pair of Elite mirrors was $14.25 including shipping from China. You may be thinking, you’re going to put a pair of repros on your resto? Ah, no. I just wanted the glass for one mirror that went missing. It was cheaper to buy the new mirrors than to buy a used one, if you could find just one. I gave up looking after seeing one set on eBay. I really didn’t know if I could swap out the glass but I figured it was worth a shot.

First step, hacksaw. It was easiest to cut the mirror out as there was no obvious way to pop it out. And trying to pull on the plastic to free up the corners, while slightly prying it, gave me flashbacks. I once tried to remove the hatch glass out of a Datsun 240Z before it went to paint. I pried up one of the corners before the rubber seal was completely loose and kah-zam! I was vacuuming glass nubs for the next 20 minutes. Once I had this mirror out, I heated up the original surround with a heat gun. It gave the black plastic just enough flex to push in one side then the other. An hour of my time I’ll never get back. Saving $20 bucks priceless. Unless you count the $20 bucks.

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