Door mirror glass

[Wallington]

Yes, plenty have gouging and deep scratches. Have to wonder how much occurred on the car and how much afterwards, being kicked around the shed and stored in a box of random parts.

I just went and pulled my spare mirror back out for some quick pics. Some things are really obvious to look at when holding it in your hand and slightly moving, then take a pic and can't see it at all. The gutter reflection took a lot of Tetris balancing skills!

The mirror backing plate is 9814437 but has the open slots and a different recessed area and shape to the previous 9814437.  I don't know if this is a feature of a convex glass or just a revised part with same number as a previous one. If you look carefully, you can see the glass has been bonded with goo, not doubled-sided tape. The slots could be used in such a way allow the goo to ooze through and lock into the backing plate when it sets, although not done here.

Firebird RH 9-78 Convex mirror comparison (1) by Ben, on Flickr

Firebird RH 9-78 Convex mirror comparison (2) by Ben, on Flickr

Firebird RH 9-78 Convex mirror comparison (3) by Ben, on Flickr

Firebird RH 9-78 Convex mirror comparison (5) by Ben, on Flickr

Firebird RH 9-78 Convex mirror comparison (6) by Ben, on Flickr

Firebird RH 9-78 Convex mirror comparison (9) by Ben, on Flickr

[Wallington]

Just checking back into an old thread. Has anyone swapped from flat mirror glass to convex and found them easier for day to day travels? They are easy enough to swap back if you wanted originality for a show or similar, one screw for an entire mirror set, or 3 screws to swap the glass pedestal over. A couple of aftermarket places offered flat and curved glass, often with their own brand or logo at the base. I don't know of the quality of these vs stock, or how chipped and scratched they'd be with the same wear after 40 years

I've noticed even on small crew cars and trucks at work that even with larger mirrors than these cars have, they often still have convex glass now on both sides. I considered getting a custom set cut for both sides just to test, they are very small mirrors and plenty of blindspots already, and I have several mirrors to donate parts if needed. I contacted a few local glass places before Christmas with the idea and to ask if they even did it, from convex mirror stock or perhaps provide existing convex mirror from used glass and cut down. But no reply from any, even to say request received, and their websites were mainly contact forms, easier to explain than over the phone, apparently not.

Need to follow it up again even just for ideas. RHD versions of these cars are now getting thin on the ground over here since they were allowed to be imported and driven LHD with certain license and registration limits, but these cars would still benefit from convex mirror glass, an option that the factory didn't provide for the LH side. The selling point, other than ease of view, would be to not have giant lettering on the glass.

[apfstg]

I pulled mirrors from my car and noticed glass not that crystal clear then put them away til hopefully painting car this year but after reading this I’m still wondering where to purchase replacements? Not many glass shops around here to have them made . Did I miss a good suggestion?

[b_hill_86]

I replaced my flat passenger mirror with a convex and it absolutely was worth it. Night and day difference, even given the small size of these mirrors. I find it very useful versus the flat mirror which I typically had pointed toward my fender to help me get into the tight quarters of my garage so it was hardly useful on the road.

Apfstg, i’ve never tried it, but I believe there are replacement glass available on eBay

[Wallington]

Yes, plenty listed on ebay and with most general F-body resto parts places. Seems to be 2-3 common brands. Burco seems most common, their ads often cover the brand name in the pic and then also fail to mention it exists. Some others like OER list their own bit like their other items, often repackage existing brands who supply them, stock photos can never be trusted as being exactly what you get.

Thanks Brian, good to know. I'll look into it further. And that's a convex mirror pun. But it should be, now that I look back and reflect upon it. Oh well, all behind me now.

[b_hill_86]

 

[apfstg]

Thank you , copy and pasted

[stros]

Good to see I’m not the only one that finds the passenger mirror worthless. 

I may have missed it but how do you actually remove the glass and replace it? 

[Wallington]

By breaking it, usually.

Yep, broke a good glass just to show something on here last night. It was a LH mirror with cut remote, but glass was good. Was. Not sure heating it gently would work or not to soften up the goo. Typically, no one replaces glass unless it's broken, scratched or destroyed. Just me, to post online and entertain others. Now I need to buy and import more.

[Wallington]

The size difference between LH and RH mirror glass on Firebirds, approx. '72-81. The first couple of years have mirrored..mirror glass and same size heads.

Firebird LH RH mirror glass sizes (1) by Ben, on Flickr

Firebird LH RH mirror glass sizes (2) by Ben, on Flickr

[Wallington]

Just had to create my 4th Flickr account, so another 3000 pics added. That doesn't include the original 2 photobuckets that were lost. Spend a lot of time simply uploading and sharing pics for people to enjoy. So, enjoy.

Something different, I haven't heard of anyone doing this before, but not the sort of thing normally discussed either...

Convex mirror glass for LH side. Many current cars now feature this on both sides, and already have twice the mirror size as these cars.

I had some glass custom cut, both sides, no text to be added. That explains the above pics showing the size differences.

Rainy day here between working, so dodgy indoors pics. LH mirrors, top is original scratched GM, lower is replacement LH glass but convex, which no one offers. Apparently, original 70's GM used approx 1200mm or 1400mm radius convex glass, whereas the standard convex glass is now 1800mm. This is what I used, I wanted an improvement over stock without the distortion of the stock glass curvature. I think I've achieved that, looks stock, nothing obviously curved, no text, and vastly improves these tiny mirrors. Stock GM curved glass could still be special-ordered in, likely special price.

Firebird LH RH stock and custom convex mirror glass 3-24 (3) by Ben Noakes, on Flickr

And seen here, stock LH scratched GM mirror glass, custom LH convex glass and stock RH GM convex glass. You can see the new glass is like 2/3 the original convex curve. This is what I feel will make it suitable for use on both sides of these cars, LHD or RHD, anywhere. The glass is also thin, could be applied straight over a scratched or broken glass and not be noticeable, or removed prior. Or perhaps you like the fact it doesn't have the giant text. I didn't include pics of the new RH glass, think you can imagine it. Sure, there's no date codes either for restorations. But that was also a supplier detail. Donnelly glass was date-coded, the other supplier/s were plain. I've forgotten them, easy to do as not shown on them, but they are listed and were used in both production line and spares for GM.

Firebird LH RH stock and custom convex mirror glass 3-24 (2) by Ben Noakes, on Flickr

Firebird LH RH stock and custom convex mirror glass 3-24 (1) by Ben Noakes, on Flickr

[stros]

Thanks Ben for posting this - totally hadn’t thought of just sticking a thin convex mirror on top of the existing one.  I like that idea much better than breaking it.

[Wallington]

I have several, a few with bad glass or missing glass, that cam be converted to a simple mirror internal set for swapping as needed. Just need to make sure the remote mirror features the larger clearance holes for cable and remote to be withdrawn. Otherwise that housing keeps the internals it came with.