Reattaching the wing mirror .... how?
Discussion
Some arse snapped the wingmirror on my passenger door. Must have hit the top of the thing hard. Hope they broke their fingers. The whole thing had broken away from the fibre glass and was dangling by the wiring.
I cleaned up the large (~30mm?) brass nut and bonded it back into the door using some epoxy resin type of stuff. This worked well, and gettig the alignment right was easy becasue there was enough of the original recess in the fibre glass left intact to act as a guide.
Now, how the hell are you supposed to reattach the mirror? There is an adapter that needs to screw into the brass nut, and then the mirror unit is attached to the adapter's ring by tightening up a grub screw. Seems to me there are two options:-
(1) first screw the adapter into the nut, position the mirror and then do up the grub screw.
(2) attach the adapter to the mirror with the grub screw, then screw the whold damn thing into the brass nut in the door
(2) seems like a crap option, but (1) seems utterly impossible because I can't get at the grub screw once the mirror is in place. There is no way a normal 3mmm allen key will get anywhere near the grubscrew. There is about 4mm clearance (absolute max) btwn the side of the recess in the door and the head of the grub screw. And the grub screw must be at least 10mm below the surface of the door.
Even if I cut down an allen key, I'm not sure the stump would be straight enough to insert given how close it would have to be cut to the right-angle bend.
I've managed to use option (2) but it is a nightmare (have to position the adapter on the mirror so that the adapter will be tight in the brass nut at just the right point so that the mirror is aligned to the door OK ... trial and error about 3 times, plus loads of cross-threading the soft alloy adapter). There must be a better way.
I cleaned up the large (~30mm?) brass nut and bonded it back into the door using some epoxy resin type of stuff. This worked well, and gettig the alignment right was easy becasue there was enough of the original recess in the fibre glass left intact to act as a guide.
Now, how the hell are you supposed to reattach the mirror? There is an adapter that needs to screw into the brass nut, and then the mirror unit is attached to the adapter's ring by tightening up a grub screw. Seems to me there are two options:-
(1) first screw the adapter into the nut, position the mirror and then do up the grub screw.
(2) attach the adapter to the mirror with the grub screw, then screw the whold damn thing into the brass nut in the door
(2) seems like a crap option, but (1) seems utterly impossible because I can't get at the grub screw once the mirror is in place. There is no way a normal 3mmm allen key will get anywhere near the grubscrew. There is about 4mm clearance (absolute max) btwn the side of the recess in the door and the head of the grub screw. And the grub screw must be at least 10mm below the surface of the door.
Even if I cut down an allen key, I'm not sure the stump would be straight enough to insert given how close it would have to be cut to the right-angle bend.
I've managed to use option (2) but it is a nightmare (have to position the adapter on the mirror so that the adapter will be tight in the brass nut at just the right point so that the mirror is aligned to the door OK ... trial and error about 3 times, plus loads of cross-threading the soft alloy adapter). There must be a better way.
Good tip if the wires are still connected ... mine weren't so they could spin around merrily inside the door. That bit of the loom has been butchered around during a previous repair. When I was unplugging things half the crimp connectors fell apart ... they really are unbelieveable pieces of shit. An excuse to play with my new gas soldering iron toy, so not all bad.
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