Rear view mirror nightmare!
Discussion
My rear view mirror broke off at the base. No big deal, right? Wrong! I bought a new one figuring it would take one minute to remove the two screws that hold it in and put in the new one. Well the screws had a nut on the end that would not come off without breaking apart the plastic template they screw into that is buried in the headliner. Now since I cannot screw into material and foam, I first tried contact cement to attach it. That failed miserably so I tried to rebuild the area with liquid wood so I could have something hard to screw into. More failure. Yesterday my Lotus dealer looked at it and said they also could not fix it. They say the only way to reattach the rear view mirror is with a $ 737.15 new headliner (from England) and labor at $ 97 per hour for however long it takes. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks.
A thousand bucks for a rear view mirror seems a bit steep to me.
You'll have to take the headliner down. It is only a few screws. Then why don't you try another nut and a washer on the inside of the headliner? You may need a slightly longer screw. I am sure it could be fixed fairly easily with some creativity. Bring it down here to Arkansas and I'll help you.
Dr.Hess
You'll have to take the headliner down. It is only a few screws. Then why don't you try another nut and a washer on the inside of the headliner? You may need a slightly longer screw. I am sure it could be fixed fairly easily with some creativity. Bring it down here to Arkansas and I'll help you.
Dr.Hess
Not sure what your car is, but on my SE that panel is fibreglass. It's held up by the 4 screws under the visors.
So long as the leather is ok then you should be able to repair it in a few hours no matter how bad it is above the material, either with big washers or re-matting or just stick some plastic onto it.
Gareth 89 SE
So long as the leather is ok then you should be able to repair it in a few hours no matter how bad it is above the material, either with big washers or re-matting or just stick some plastic onto it.
Gareth 89 SE
dr.hess said:
A thousand bucks for a rear view mirror seems a bit steep to me.
You'll have to take the headliner down. It is only a few screws. Then why don't you try another nut and a washer on the inside of the headliner? You may need a slightly longer screw. I am sure it could be fixed fairly easily with some creativity. Bring it down here to Arkansas and I'll help you.
Dr.Hess
Thanks for the response. The headliner is also held on with a plastic thing all around the edge. It is hard to explain but even if I took the headliner down, there is nothing hard to screw into. Remember the area it should go is now a hole. Plus anything I screw into has to itself be held tight in place. a catch 22.
My experience is with the SE type head piece, as igreen describes, 4 screws behind the visors. Still, I would think that a small piece of metal with a nut on the back side should do it. Can you take some pics so we can see what you are dealing with?
Another thing to consider: Some mirrors are simply glued to the windshield. I think some Corvettes are like this, and I am sure many other vehicles. (There was a joke a few decades ago about Corvette rear view mirror glue coming in 55 gal drums, but I am sure adhesive technology has improved since then...) Get one of those stick-on's and glue it to the windshield. Done. A walk through the pick-a-part yard with a razor blade is bound to turn up a nice looking mirror that matches the interior. New glue at the auto parts store. Total cost estimate: Ten bucks. You can even put it in a position that you can actually see out the rear.
Our motto here is "We can fix anything. If we can't fix it, we can fix it so no one can."
Dr.Hess
Another thing to consider: Some mirrors are simply glued to the windshield. I think some Corvettes are like this, and I am sure many other vehicles. (There was a joke a few decades ago about Corvette rear view mirror glue coming in 55 gal drums, but I am sure adhesive technology has improved since then...) Get one of those stick-on's and glue it to the windshield. Done. A walk through the pick-a-part yard with a razor blade is bound to turn up a nice looking mirror that matches the interior. New glue at the auto parts store. Total cost estimate: Ten bucks. You can even put it in a position that you can actually see out the rear.
Our motto here is "We can fix anything. If we can't fix it, we can fix it so no one can."
Dr.Hess
Take a look here to see if its the same as mine. If so I'm sure you could fix the panel from the rear and even re cover it if necessary.
www.unity1.co.uk/Lotus/Project/Interior/head.htm
www.unity1.co.uk/Lotus/Project/Interior/head.htm
You need to be able to put nuts on the end of bolts, but with no access to the nut. Easy.
What you need is a Rivet Nut. What this is is essentially a rivet with a threaded hole. The rivnut can be put into a blind hole, like you have, and then you can screw a screw into the device and tighten it up. They work wonderfully.
Go here:
www.mcmaster.com
And search for rivet nut. You'll find them and understand. You'll need a rivnut insert tool, about $60, but once you have one of those you'll find all sorts of uses for this fantastic little device and fastener.
Ron
>> Edited by rlearp on Friday 16th July 15:30
What you need is a Rivet Nut. What this is is essentially a rivet with a threaded hole. The rivnut can be put into a blind hole, like you have, and then you can screw a screw into the device and tighten it up. They work wonderfully.
Go here:
www.mcmaster.com
And search for rivet nut. You'll find them and understand. You'll need a rivnut insert tool, about $60, but once you have one of those you'll find all sorts of uses for this fantastic little device and fastener.
Ron
>> Edited by rlearp on Friday 16th July 15:30
Harbor Freight has a riv-nut type insertion tool for a fraction of the official rivnut brand type. Not near the quality, but for ten or fifteen bucks and minimal use, WTF. Don't squeeze too hard or you will pull the threads out. I think this type of tool should come with the car. The HF one comes with SAE attachments for SAE rivnuts, and the Esprit mirror bolts are metric, BTW.
On my 89, I drop the panel, put a small wrench on the nut, tighten the bolt, then put the panel back. I made a bracket for the V1 that mounts bewteen the mirror bracket and the cover thing. The V1 mounts to the bracket, so it is just above the mirror. Ran the phone cord wire under the cover, down the A pillar to under the dash.
Dr.Hess
On my 89, I drop the panel, put a small wrench on the nut, tighten the bolt, then put the panel back. I made a bracket for the V1 that mounts bewteen the mirror bracket and the cover thing. The V1 mounts to the bracket, so it is just above the mirror. Ran the phone cord wire under the cover, down the A pillar to under the dash.
Dr.Hess
I agree that this problem could be somehow corrected with a bit of creative thinking...
Then again. There is the bright side:
"Gee. No officer. I did not see you behind me trying to keep up for the last couple miles. You see, my rear view mirror is broken so I did not realize that you were behind me trying to idicate that my speed was a bit high. I just didn't see you there. Really."
Hahahaha....
Drive topless!!!
Cameron
Then again. There is the bright side:
"Gee. No officer. I did not see you behind me trying to keep up for the last couple miles. You see, my rear view mirror is broken so I did not realize that you were behind me trying to idicate that my speed was a bit high. I just didn't see you there. Really."
Hahahaha....
Drive topless!!!
Cameron
Thanks for the responses. Some comments: I did put on an aftermarket winshield stick on rear view mirror for emergency use. It is 95% useless because the slope of the widshield is more than the ball joints in the mirror can bend and all I see is 10 feet in back of me. The problem is I have an S4s with the huge rear wing. You need to be able to see ABOVE the rear wing. This is not possible with the windshield stick ons.
I thought of putting a 2" square adapter piece there to have something hard to screw into. The problem is getting the adapter piece to stay up since the area has nothing hard to attach it to. Plus the area is curved and unless it is in the EXACT correct place you will not be able to see above the rear wing. I will keep trying.
I thought of putting a 2" square adapter piece there to have something hard to screw into. The problem is getting the adapter piece to stay up since the area has nothing hard to attach it to. Plus the area is curved and unless it is in the EXACT correct place you will not be able to see above the rear wing. I will keep trying.
I may be missing something here, but have you tried removing the interior dome light to get to the two screws holding the mirror up in the headliner?
I pulled the dome light out of my S4s last night and I think you should be able to get to them fairly easily. This all came about as I was thinking of doing the following mod to my current mirror - www.andywhittaker.com/lotus/rearview_mirror.htm
>> Edited by fmxa on Saturday 17th July 19:44
I pulled the dome light out of my S4s last night and I think you should be able to get to them fairly easily. This all came about as I was thinking of doing the following mod to my current mirror - www.andywhittaker.com/lotus/rearview_mirror.htm
>> Edited by fmxa on Saturday 17th July 19:44
fmxa said:
I may be missing something here, but have you tried removing the interior dome light to get to the two screws holding the mirror up in the headliner?
I pulled the dome light out of my S4s last night and I think you should be able to get to them fairly easily. This all came about as I was thinking of doing the following mod to my current mirror - www.andywhittaker.com/lotus/rearview_mirror.htm
>> Edited by fmxa on Saturday 17th July 19:44
The entire area the rear view mirror use to attach/screw into is now a hole. It got ruined when the original screws would not come out. They just turned and turned and turned. I am going to try an upholstery and glass shop that I know does great work. Until then I will do my ghetto style by lifting up the rear view mirror while I am driving every now and then to see in back of me.
fmxa said:
Okay, I understand now - FWIW I had the same issue trying to remove my mirror (screws just turned and turned). Then I had the bright to figure out I could get to them once the dome light was removed (long shot but it worked). Hope you get it all fixed soon.
Cheers
Paul
Remove the dome light??!! I knew there had to be a way. I took off the plastic dome light cover but I thought that was just to change the dome light bulbs. It appeared the dome light was glued onto the headliner and was never meant to come off. How exactly did you get it off? Did it go right back on?
Skerd said:
I did put on an aftermarket winshield stick on rear view mirror for emergency use. It is 95% useless because the slope of the widshield is more than the ball joints in the mirror can bend and all I see is 10 feet in back of me.
I had a similar experience recently with my '83. Seems that the PO had broken the shaft of the mirror and glued it back together. Although I could have glued it again, I opted to install an aftermarket mirror that sticks to the windshield. I didn't have any issues with the angle of the windshield (and I doubt the angle is that much different between the Stevens and G cars.) Maybe you need to find a different aftermarket mirror?
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