Moving the sports mirrors forward.

I just use a wink mirror.. Too many other areas of the car that need attention lol

 

Well, I gave it a whirl ....

... I tried moving the passenger side mirror forward, using the front mounting nutsert for the new rear position for the base.

The result ....
The mirror was in a much better position functionally. Much better view.

It looked great from the side. Tucked in parallel to the A pillar .... superb!

It looked fine from the front.

But, I think I now know why they tucked them so far back ....

In a 3/4 view across the front, they look hideous. .... the aero point at the front of the mirror jutted out into space, sticking out past the A pillar at a truly unfortunate angle. It almost looked like an add-on spotlight. It is really bad. There is no way I am moving them this far forward.

Might go forward a couple inches, but it really will be mindful of how it looks sighting across the hood.

 

Follow on the mirror position....

I now have my driver's door on the bench and popped open, so I can look around and see internally if I have much room to play with when moving the mirror.

As mentioned at the start ... this car is a 72... the mirrors might be a bit further back from 70-71 from what seems to be mentioned in other posts, and this car started life with one chrome driver mirror outside. The base on the chrome mirror is shorter than the sport mirror, and the way I mounted the sport mirror to this door was to use the existing front rivnut and cable hole, and to add a new rear rivnut, further back.

This may have created a situation where I actually moved the sports mirror even further back than the factory intended ... making the problem even worse. HERE is where some real measurements from factory-original cars could help clear this up for everyone.... with the year that the car was released, please, so that we can debunk if the mirror position changed.


If we can compile some data, this could be a good tech article to have onfile here.

While looking at the driver's door from the outside, the unused original rivnut from the chrome mirror is still in place, and I started toying with the idea of using that again, except now moving the mirror forward to use it. This will require a new forward rivnut, and a new hole for the cable to pass through the door would be a good idea. The existing hole is very far back on the mirror. If you tried to reuse the cable hole, with the sport mirror placed forward, you would have to cut a new hole in the gasket, and it does seem that the cables feel like they are in a bind shoved that far back.

The end result of this placement is that the front hole is almost exactly three inches back from the inside junction of the door's A-pillar window frame and the upper doorskin.

I mocked this up on the passenger door to get a look at how it appears from all angles, and outside appearance is quite good. From the side, it tucks the A-pillar better and that odd appearance that I noted earlier while sighting 3/4 across the hood is all but gone. You barely see the tip of the mirror.... very acceptable.

From inside the car, the view is much better than where I had positioned these. I still say they worked tremendously better where I first mocked them up .... way,way forward ... but they would probably work great strapped to the side of the front fender, too. (yuck!)

Sooooo.... I think I found a sweet spot for these.... with the forward hole 3 inches back from back of the A-pillar window frame on the door.

 

I'm jumping in on this because it's a mirror question. I have a '73 Mav and I want to put a passenger's mirror on it. Any idea where I can find a matching one (original still on driver's side)? If not, I see some after market mirrors on photos of other Mavericks. Any suggestions at to which mirrors look best? I don't plan on painting, and would probably stick with a chrome mirror. thanks.

 

Hi,
These cars did not come with a passenger side mirror unless you got the sports mirrors, as far as I have been able to figure out. Nothing that really matches the chrome rectangular one for the driver side.

A buddy put a pair of round mirror from a 60s Mustang on his and it looked super.

Check out this thread ....
http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=78818&highlight=shinysideup