Door mirror frame

[Dungman]

Removed both door mirrors today prepping car for paint. The passenger side was floppy and I assumed the column was broken however the metal frame inside the mirror housing is broken where it joins the column.

Any ideas if you can get a new one or anyone got a NS mirror / frame lying around and are prepared to part with it? Thanks

[phazed]

Aren't they off a Citroen GS?

[Tyre Smoke]

phazed said:

Aren't they off a Citroen GS?

Nope, close though. Citroen CX.

Oh, and Jaguar 220's

[Dungman]

Thanks. Must be XJ220 prices on ebay, all £150+ used!

[S4CJO]

Usually this bit that get broken

http://www.racetechdirect.co.uk/tvr-car-part-u0649...

[brett84]

wow they are expensive

better here - http://www.clever-trevor.net/TVR/Parts_details/U06...

[marshalla]

Tyre Smoke said:

Nope, close though. Citroen CX.

Oh, and Jaguar 220's

and Lotus Esprit & Excel.

[Dungman]

S4CJO & Brett84 thanks, I thought it would be this part but unfortunately not, it's where the top of that collapsible column screws into the mirror.

[ianwayne]

I did something similar to this guy to fix mine. It isn't always the tripod that breaks, it's where it bolts to the housing:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=792...

You'll need to scroll down about 5 pages to get photo details.

Edited by ianwayne on Thursday 20th March 15:28

[Dungman]

Thanks Ianwayne, good thread. That is exactly where mine is broken although mine is probably worse. This will be the back up plan if I can't get a new frame at reasonable money.

[Pupp]

Carefully splinted repairs with alloy and JB Weld can be effective and durable - Avoid folding the mirrors in

[ChimpOnGas]

ianwayne said:

I did something similar to this guy to fix mine. It isn't always the tripod that breaks, it's where it bolts to the housing:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=792...

You'll need to scroll down about 5 pages to get photo details.

Edited by ianwayne on Thursday 20th March 15:28

That's what I did with some additional ideas of my own.

Basically these mirrors are total junk & suffer a number of issues, the construction is very poor using extremely brittle injection moulded monkey metal for the frame & tapered pivot post.

Failure is inevitable, if your mirrors haven't failed yet I'm afraid to say it's only a matter of time before they do.

The good news is (with a bit of thought & ingenuity) all the failings can be solved very cheaply.

A pop riveted plate solved one problem, removing the allen headed grub screw and drilling a divot for it to locate in solved another.

The grub screw is there to offer infinite adjustment, a great idea in the Citroen but the way TVR fitted these mirrors to the Chimaera means you can't actually get to the grub screw to use this feature, that means it needs to be tightened before the mirror is screwed into the door.

What tends to happen is the mirror spins on the post when the grub screw loosens or it's grip gets overcome when you fold the mirrors, there's a very strong ratchet spring inside that requires some considerable force to overcome it when you fold your mirrors.

All that strain in transferred to the tiny end of the grub screw which is trying to bite on the smooth surface of the monkey metal post, once it starts to slip it'll only ever get worse until you're forced to remove the mirrors to tighten that hidden grub screw.

And you dont want to be doing that every six months, so a more permanent solution is definitely needed.

Drilling a divot in the post for the grub screw to locate to means the mirror simply cant spin, just make sure you drill the divot in the right place or the mirror will be in the wrong place once you've screwed in into the door.

Fortunately TVR must have trial fitted the mirrors because there's a blue felt tip line marking the correct position to tighten the grub screw.

My pop riveted reinforcing base plate worked well as did drilling the grub screw divot but after a while the stresses just got transferred to the tapered monkey metal post

So the next phase of my repairs involved drilling out the blind hole in the tapered monkey metal post which allowed me to pass a bolt through its centre, I then used a washer and nylock nut to tightly clamp the broken post to the mirror frame.

It's like a Iron Maiden in there now but all you can see from the outside is totally standard mirrors, with that steel central clamping bolt in place the end result is actually a far stronger mirror, massively stronger & more secure than when they were new in fact.

With all these modifications & repairs I can now fold the mirrors in & back out again on that rather strongly sprung internal ratchet system as many times as I like without fearing they'll snap, go floppy or start spinning.

Best of all it cost virtually nothing to repair them this way, all you really need is time & a lot of patience.

Here's some photos that may help:

[Dungman]

Thanks, very helpful. Another job to add to the list but better than spending silly money only for the same thing to happen again.