Door Mirrors - Alternatives

[IBDAET]

I've just done Le Mans in my car with a screen and doors on and it was damn hot. I like having the screen and half hood as it gives decent weather protection if it rains (which it also did - heavily a couple of times) but what I want to do when its sunny is take off the doors and run with just the screen on. My driving style dictates mirrors are essential - the rear view mirror is near useless with the X in the centre of the Double D roadsport cage, exacerbated when touring so having a boot bag and hood bag on the back also.

I have an aeroscreen which is a scuttle swap with some SPA Design carbon mirrors and I'm eager to take these off and mount them on the normal windscreen frame as a better solution than the caravan mirrors currently on the doors. This leaves the mirrors on the car when the doors are removed.

Does anyone have any experience of fitting the mirrors to the wingscreen stanchions - how they impeed door opening (especially with the cage) did you drill the stanchions or make/buy some brackets?

Any other solutions I've overlooked?

[Gingerbread Man]

I think there was some 'Nifty Mirror Mounts' on Blatchat once that were removable and mounted on the door hinge?

Then another recent bulk buy which I also believe is on eBay of a mirror mount for the windscreen stantion. http://blatchat.com/t.asp?id=235455

Or Caterham sell a post, extension as it were to mount the mirrors off the windscreen stations again.

Edited by Gingerbread Man on Wednesday 9th July 20:49

[BigCol]

Whilst I usually drive Aero, I have a pair of SPA mirrors on the windscreen.

I simply drilled and tapped the stanchions and screwed the mirrors onto them - very easy, very much neater than the Caterham mirrors in IVA configuration. That said, I also had to get some longer arms from SPA as the near side mirror was not fully visible.

This was all before andy_h came up with his Bulk Buy on Blatchat which looks an easier solution.

[framerateuk]

This has come up a few times lately!

I still like the simple mount from Caterham:
http://caterhamparts.co.uk/product.php?id_product=...

You fit a longer bolt on to the middle windscreen bolt, and the mirrors just grab on with an allen key attachment. It takes all of 20 seconds to fit them - and they use the same mirrors that are currently attached to the doors.

They still have the same problem as all the other windscreen mirrors in that you can't open the doors fully with them attached though. I tend to use the door mirrors when the doors are on, and these when the doors are off.

[BigCol]

framerateuk said:

I still like the simple mount from Caterham:
http://caterhamparts.co.uk/product.php?id_product=...

You fit a longer bolt on to the middle windscreen bolt, and the mirrors just grab on with an allen key attachment. It takes all of 20 seconds to fit them - and they use the same mirrors that are currently attached to the doors..

These are the IVA mounts as the mirrors on the doors would fail the IVA test. As I like driving without doors, I kept the mirrors mounted this way and never put them on the doors.

You're right, it is the simplest solution but I felt they were ugly, hence changing to the neater, more elegant, SPA items.

[IBDAET]

I have pinged Mr Fingers. Thanks.

[ghibbett]

BigCol said:

You're right, it is the simplest solution but I felt they were ugly, hence changing to the neater, more elegant, SPA items.

Completely agree with you. Aside from them being ugly it's easy to knock the mirrors, which are only held in position by a friction-based grub screw.

As soon as I get my Andyh brackets, I'll be putting a set of SPA carbon mirrors on

[Eccles52]

This is the first version of a bracket I printed which seems to work quite well, there is a little vibration but not so much that you can't see what's going on behind. One good thing is that you open up the side screen fully without knocking the mirror.

[Gingerbread Man]

Not being able to open the doors all the way would annoy me, so I've left mine on the doors vibrating away. A nice solution where they were firmer and the door could be swung open would have me standing in line.