My side mirrors have been loose for years. not terrible but you can predict/watch them fold in - pretty much whenever you hit 60-65 MPH or any other kind of strong headwind. I tried superglue on the ball a few times and that works for a while and it's easy. Another suggested simple fix I've read about was to put some "dimples" in the ball with an awl to create friction.
Today i read about another on-car fix in the old C Body Dry Dock where folks were using a heat gun to remove the glass. (Forums / General Tech / '70 Fury mirror - C-Body DryDock ). I had read about soaking the mirror assemblies in gasoline to get that glass out (still might be best to preserve glass/mirror and avoid any damage to the mirror - see below "Lessons Learned."
I had a long-base mirror sitting around and it's about negative teens Fahrenheit windchills here today so i thought i give it a try. Short answer; 5-10 minutes with a heat gun and the glass was out. It works! Long answer below.
I'm not sure you can do it how i did on the car by yourself. I just peened over the pot metal "rivets" (riveting?) using a large nail set. I had the advantage of having the mirror on the work bench. It worked slick and didn't have to hit it that hard (it's pot metal after all). If you had someone to steady the mirror on the car you probably could give those rivets a few gentle taps or do what they were doing 20 years ago on the dry dock and drill them out and add little screws to put it all back together. I also thought about just hitting the spring steel piece that the ball sits in with an awl a few times to try to add some tension, but I didn't need to.
Lessons learned:
Take your time (this was clearly stated in the Dry Dock post!). I either wasn't patient enough or didn't use the best tool for prying on that mirror. I used a round pick to pry on the mirror and put some tiny dings in the casing edge. You can barely seem them but when you add the glass/mirror they are a bit more apparent. I would find something flat with a little hook end to try to pull on the glass rather than lever against the housing.
Also, i would probably try to find something other than a nail set to hit that pot metal with. It put some sharp edges into that and pot metal is pretty fragile. I'd try to avoid compromising that riveting area.
Anyway, the heat gun method works really well and I'm glad I tried it with a test with a mirror I don't have a use for!
Today i read about another on-car fix in the old C Body Dry Dock where folks were using a heat gun to remove the glass. (Forums / General Tech / '70 Fury mirror - C-Body DryDock ). I had read about soaking the mirror assemblies in gasoline to get that glass out (still might be best to preserve glass/mirror and avoid any damage to the mirror - see below "Lessons Learned."
I had a long-base mirror sitting around and it's about negative teens Fahrenheit windchills here today so i thought i give it a try. Short answer; 5-10 minutes with a heat gun and the glass was out. It works! Long answer below.
I'm not sure you can do it how i did on the car by yourself. I just peened over the pot metal "rivets" (riveting?) using a large nail set. I had the advantage of having the mirror on the work bench. It worked slick and didn't have to hit it that hard (it's pot metal after all). If you had someone to steady the mirror on the car you probably could give those rivets a few gentle taps or do what they were doing 20 years ago on the dry dock and drill them out and add little screws to put it all back together. I also thought about just hitting the spring steel piece that the ball sits in with an awl a few times to try to add some tension, but I didn't need to.
Lessons learned:
Take your time (this was clearly stated in the Dry Dock post!). I either wasn't patient enough or didn't use the best tool for prying on that mirror. I used a round pick to pry on the mirror and put some tiny dings in the casing edge. You can barely seem them but when you add the glass/mirror they are a bit more apparent. I would find something flat with a little hook end to try to pull on the glass rather than lever against the housing.
Also, i would probably try to find something other than a nail set to hit that pot metal with. It put some sharp edges into that and pot metal is pretty fragile. I'd try to avoid compromising that riveting area.
Anyway, the heat gun method works really well and I'm glad I tried it with a test with a mirror I don't have a use for!
