fixing rear view mirror into glass fibre dash board

[garysenter]

very new to this and only had my mk indy for a week....have purchased a dash mountable rear view mirror. requires 3 holes putting into top of dash where aero screens sit.....any advise on drilling into glass fibre also any special type of screws???

[Jon Ison]

Make a spreader plate to spread the load under the dash/scuttle to help keep vibration down, place masking tape on the scuttle to mark and drill through

[slomax]

As suggested, tape both sides of glass fibre and mark out before drilling, this will help to prevent the gel coat cracking. When drilling, do so very slowly and apply only a tiny amount of pressure as you want to drill though it instead of breaking through it which is very easy to do. If you apply too much pressure you will rip some of the fibre matting and will leave you with a weakened area and verry messy looking. It wont be taking big forces so small screws/bolts will be best and a backing plate is essential. What i have done on mine is taken some rubber from an old car mat and produced a small pad that goes between the metal and fibreglass as this will protect the fibreglass from craking/grazing under vibrations from the mirror.

[singlecoil]

If you have a variable speed drill, run it slow, and, until you are through the gel coat at least, run it in reverse. I've done it this way many times, you are far less likely to get a split or a crack. It does work.

[garysenter]

brilliant !....all very simple ideas that make sense..... thanks guys


regards
gary

[garysenter]

hey guys just checking in for progress report....the fixing of rear view mirror went well thanks to your advise....used masking tape prior to drilling...first 1 mm drill then progressed increasing by 1mm at a time on variable speed hand drill in reverse as advised !!!! kind of looks wrong but yes it does work...patience and slowly slowly catchy monkey attitude......seems to rub its way through rather than cut but as you said is far better when working with such a fibrous material. used small phillips headed straight shank screws with nuts on the back to secure with a rubber circular disc in between base of mirror mounting and bodywork...........excellent guys thankyou all so much......did a few other jobs today. stuck on my stone chip carbon fibre guards onto both rear wheel arches and used wifes clear nail varnish to paint over the edges to prevent fibres fraying......but before all this i tackled the easiest job of the day.....well it should have been anyway. fitting new alloys and tyres !.....unfortunately due to the very minimal clearance around each stud hole i discovered the wheel nut adaptor i needed to use in conjunction with my wheel brace seemed to foul on the clearance holes around the location holes of the wheels....hope this all makes sense.....consequently the thin walled adaptor didnt like it and promptly rounded off its internal hexagon shape.......so i am currently wearing 2 nice new alloys and 2 old ford alloys .....phoned the supplier and fingers crossed i recieve a new adaptor tool tomorrow and i can finish the supposedly simple job of fitting my new alloys......what a day !!!

[singlecoil]

garysenter said:

hey guys just checking in for progress report....the fixing of rear view mirror went well thanks to your advise....used masking tape prior to drilling...first 1 mm drill then progressed increasing by 1mm at a time on variable speed hand drill in reverse as advised !!!! kind of looks wrong but yes it does work...patience and slowly slowly catchy monkey attitude......seems to rub its way through rather than cut but as you said is far better when working with such a fibrous material. used small phillips headed straight shank screws with nuts on the back to secure with a rubber circular disc in between base of mirror mounting and bodywork...........excellent guys thankyou all so much......did a few other jobs today. stuck on my stone chip carbon fibre guards onto both rear wheel arches and used wifes clear nail varnish to paint over the edges to prevent fibres fraying......but before all this i tackled the easiest job of the day.....well it should have been anyway. fitting new alloys and tyres !.....unfortunately due to the very minimal clearance around each stud hole i discovered the wheel nut adaptor i needed to use in conjunction with my wheel brace seemed to foul on the clearance holes around the location holes of the wheels....hope this all makes sense.....consequently the thin walled adaptor didnt like it and promptly rounded off its internal hexagon shape.......so i am currently wearing 2 nice new alloys and 2 old ford alloys .....phoned the supplier and fingers crossed i recieve a new adaptor tool tomorrow and i can finish the supposedly simple job of fitting my new alloys......what a day !!!

Put a couple of returns in there to make it easier to read, I didn't bother, especially with no sentences, very difficult to read.