S3 mirrors

[drivingfroggy]

Hi. I am new to TVRing having just bought a lovely S3. However the door mirrors are aweful. They are the standard fit black plastic items and the nearside one is a wobbly nightmare. I read that some people replace them with MX5 units. Can anyone suggest good affordable and cosmetically correct replacements? I've looked on Demon Tweeks and they have some nice ones, but whether any would fit is another thing. Cheers

[Road2Ruin]

The Audi TT ones fit, as do apparantly an old london taxi! There are a few threads on this subject before do a search and you will easily find some.

[tvrgit]

Exactly which mirrors are they? There were 3 different basic types fitted to the S3.

1. I think some S3s had the original "bunny ear" ones - they come straight out of the door and have a little corrugated plastic cober over the adjuster bit.

2. More normally, the Citroen CX mirror (also fitted to Jaguar 220) - it's bigger and has 3 rubber o-rings around it.

Those two tend to be painted in body colour, not black.

Not sure about the first one but I think the second ones were partly glassed into the door so I'm not sure if you can fit another mirror on top.

3. Occasionally (I've only seen a handful and mine is one of them) a rectangular black mirror, fixed by one bottom corner.

Look at my web site diary for last month and you'll see what I mean, and how to get those ones off.

I've been planning to change mine for ages, and even bought two replacements. Unfortunately, my car has had the door lacquered at some point with the mirror in place, so there is a "lip" round the shape of the base, and the door underneath is a slightly different colour, and the new mirrors didn't cover the same area.

I ended up refurbing the originals.

If you do want to change them though, I have two very nice mirrors (currently painted black but can be repainted) that I'd be as well selling, because they're no use to me now.

[muskrat]

Hi,
I've just gone thru this.. I assume you have the rubbish bunny ears mirrors.. worse than useless.. I've replaced with MX5s.. which I think are better looking than the square ones.

Mike

[drivingfroggy]

Thanks for the swift replies guys. It seems that I have the bunny ear type fitted. I like the sound of Audi TT units, but they will probably cost a bomb. tvrgit, I'll check out the set you have and get back to you. I'm offshore right now, so it won't be for a few weeks anyway. Thanks

[Gerald-TVR]

I've got the square ones fitted by Adrian at Exactly TVR Coventry, see photo and quote

Adrian@ said:

The good thing about these are that they were listed as optional fitting for the car. There is a little work to do the door (alloy frame and glass removal but no fibreglass), the mirror that needs reshaping to give it the shape to suit the door, both mirror glasses need to be remade (in Normans case one standard and one convex) as the originals need to be destroyed to strip the unit down to enable the motor units (they can be fully fitted as electric units but are but need not be) to allow the range to be correct to the TVR, that is, if you have a driver that is pushing the seat right back and also if they are to be painted the same as the car. Adrian@