Wing Mirror Glass

[mk1fan]

Evening,

I need to replace the mirrors in both Tamy's wing, er, mirrors. Are the units VW Corrado units? If not what are they / where can I get replacement mirrors?

Thanks

[Desiato]

mk1fan said:

Evening,

I need to replace the mirrors in both Tamy's wing, er, mirrors. Are the units VW Corrado units? If not what are they / where can I get replacement mirrors?

Thanks

Yes they are VW Corrado, I bought mine from eBay.

[Pursyluv]

Buy the glass and stick it over the existing glass for £15 or replace the whole unit £150, both can be bought from Powers Shop.

[paul1962]

I was about to post a similar question.

Looking on ebay there are flat or convex available. Also some come with plastic clip, others without.
Which do we need ?
Are the ebay ones decent quality ?

Thanks
Paul

[mk1fan]

Thanks guys. I'll get a couple from evilbay and report back.

[paul1962]

Stewart, do you know which of the many on ebay you're going for or had any in particular recommended ?
As I need two sets I don't want to waste money on something which isn't right or of poor quality.

[mk1fan]

I've ordered a blue, convex, heated one from an ebay shop. Once it turns up I'll post up details - if it's any good.

[mk1fan]

Right. Mirror turned up pretty quick (despite the time of year).

It was this item -
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390617553250?ssPageName=...

New mirror and backing plate on the left and 'original' item on the right.



Different backing plate though.



So I gently levered off the original backing plate. Not a perfect fit but doesn't stand out / is that obvious. The original mirror is flat so the center bit of the new mirror sits away from the backing plate a bit. I added more double sided tape as the three strips fitted weren't used much. I also had to cut out a hole for the heater connections.



Tested it already - went out for a drive yesterday - in both day and night conditions. The convex shape gives a slightly wider view of behind and doesn't magnify reflections as much as the original. Not a huge amount but, imho, a worthwhile improvement for when the roof is up. The 'anti-glare' blue tint is, again imho, very effective.

I've ordered a replacement (without the backing plate) for the passenger side. Now just need to find a similar rear view mirror.

Edited by mk1fan on Tuesday 24th December 00:19

[alex_gray255]

paul1962 said:

Stewart, do you know which of the many on ebay you're going for or had any in particular recommended ?
As I need two sets I don't want to waste money on something which isn't right or of poor quality.

If what you get works well on your Sag, Paul, let me know as well

[paul1962]

Thanks for the comprehensive reply Stewart.
Seems quite straight forward.
Strange the backing plates are different.

Alex, I'm changing those on the Tamora first as they're in much worse condition than the Sags. Also, I can't drive the Sag atm.

[alex_gray255]

paul1962 said:

Thanks for the comprehensive reply Stewart.
Alex, I'm changing those on the Tamora first as they're in much worse condition than the Sags. Also, I can't drive the Sag atm.

S&D/Russ still not fixed the bonnet then? Ok.

Been a while since I caught up with Paul about the new chip, but he was aiming to send everything to
Brendan during late Dec/early Jan.

Alright, I'll look at wing mirrors for the Sag next year. I was thinking of doing something with them anyway.

They look a bit like Prince Charles ears and I was wanting to add a power flow function some time.

Cheers.

[mk1fan]

Just swapped the other mirror over.

Does anyone know if the plastic 'tang' on the backing plate has to go in the brass spring clip within the casing?

[paul1962]

Hi Stewart,

Did you get this resolved ?

Have been looking at the various offerings on ebay and notice there are various back plates.
This one has a full sized backing plate but I'm still not sure if it fits the Tam or not

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Passenger-near-side-lhs-...


Alex, main problem at the moment is lack of mileage left on my insurance. I'm on 5000 a year limited, can't be increased, and with 4 months left I can only do 800 miles so I'm not using it at the moment.

[mk1fan]

Fitted the passenger mirror yesterday. Didn't bother trying to get the plastic tang in to the spring.

The replacement backing plates seem to have plastic clips to hold the mirror to the case. The original has clips and pins. To be fair I'm sure it would be fine but as the original plates are easy to remove (warm them up a bit, thinish flat blade, some brake cleaner / panel wipe and non ape like gentle teasing) I thought I'd use them.

Alternatively, you could just stick a new mirror over the old one, as suggested above.

[paul1962]

Just thought I'd post my experience with replacing the mirrors.
As I need two sets I thought I'd be two different types just to experiment.
1. Blue tint convext like mk1fan.
2. Standard whose link is my earlier post.

The blue tint mirrors were made of much thicker glass than the others.
The 2nd type came with the backing plate attached and simply clicked into place on the car, no need to remove the existing backing plate, so nice and easy.

For the first type I tried to remove the backing plate from the existing mirror.
The drivers side glass came away from the plate completely while trying to remove from the car and left the heating pad still attached to the clip.
The passenger side needed a bit more persuasion but also came away fairly easily again leaving the heating pad behind. So, could've got away with just buying a glass.

This it what the backing plate looks like with mirror removed and heating pad still attached