Lighted Rear View Mirror

I came across this lighted rear view mirror in the junkyard in a 1995 Lincoln Continental, and got it for $4.50. Figured it would be cool in the Maverick.













The mirror has three wires. Ground, one that gets constant power so you can turn the map lights on at any time via the switches on the face of the mirror, and the other wire goes to the dome light circuit so the lights come on when you open the door. I fished the wires through the head liner with a coat hanger (major PITA!) and removed the clip for the visors. I drilled a 7/32 hole for the wires to pass through the metal beam above the windshield into the inside of that visor clip (extreme caution is required here, if you go to fast the drill is going to hit the roof from the bottom side and create a dent in your roof from the inside out!).

I filed out a small U shape on the front side of the visor clip for the wires to pass inside the clip from the mirror, then twisted/taped the wires and shoved the taped splices back up through the hole I drilled into the beam above the windshield. For ground I just stripped back the ground wire, stuck it in one of the screw holes for the visor clip and then put the screw back in.





Couple of pictures attempting to show the lighting. The dome light in the middle of the roof is off.

Just thought I would share. My '73, I plan to get one of the mirrors with the compass and temperature in it that shows through the back side of the mirror, and the wires will be ran much nicer. Haven't determined what all that's going to take yet.

 

this would be a great mod. when replacing the ...headliner..

my dome light wire is still taped up above my headliner. i taped it up there when i was cleaning the car out and forgot to position it so i could pull it after the headliner was installed...

...JFF...

 

Nice, great find

 

Yea, I would definitely recommend running the wires with the head liner removed. I almost gave up a couple of times, it was such a PITA getting the wires from the stock dome light opening up to the front of the car. I tied the wires around the end of a straightened coat hanger and wrapped tape around just to be sure the wires couldn't slide down the hanger. The whole time you are trying to shove the coat hanger up there it's trying to get stuck in the insulation and stuff above the head liner, plus you gotta get it around two of the bows, and you gotta watch it because sometimes it touched the head liner from the back side so you have to be careful not to poke a hole in the head liner from the inside out. And keep in mind you can't see what's going on, you can just feel the coat hanger and hear it as it slides along the bottom of the roof and kind of get an idea of where it's at.

I had my hole drilled up front and all I could do once I knew the straightened coat hanger had gone all the way to the front was twist and scoot it around blindly until I could finally see it through the hole. then just grabbed ahold of the wires with a pair of pliers and pulled them down through the hole and cut them loose from the hanger. Took me about two and a half hours all in all to install and wire it up. Obviously by the pics this isn't no show car, I gave 100 bucks for the car, shoved an engine in and drove it 57,000 miles. So wasn't overly concerned about the shrink wrap I put on the upper part of the wires matching the factory shrink wrap which can clearly be seen in the 4th pic. But I at least wanted it to look like it was done right.

 

That looks great Jamie! If I didn't have the wink mirror I would definitly do this one. Great stuff...

 

Wink mirror?

 

That's what I was trying to figure out... Care to elaborate on what a "wink" mirror is, Gene?

 

i stole mine off my monte carlo after it was totaled. i was thinking i would put i on my maverick one day. never happened got to lazy... lol! but yours looks exactly just like mine... ford chevy same mirror... lol!

i think your dating yourself.. lol! i "never" had one of those.

here's a fake on below... "wink" knock off

 

It wouldn't surprise me if it is the same identical mirror. This mirror had a manufactures name on the back and a non Ford part number. Don't remember exactly what it said now. Seems to be kind of a "universal OEM" part, if that makes sense, I'll bet the manufacturer sold it to several different car company's. My brother took his girlfriend out in the car tonight, I'll have to wait until he gets back to get the company name and part number off the back. Glad to see I'm not the only one who pulls parts off totaled cars before they come haul it off. I've got a few odds and ends off our old '02 Taurus SEL, like a nifty trunk light I plan to use on my car. My dad has the factory 6 disc CD changer from it in his Mustang.

 

Not sure what you mean but... THAT'S IT! You found one. I havn't seen them on any shelf in a very long time.
After putting it in the car, I can't see driving it without it.
I once had 1"x2"s going accross the arm rests in the rear and had two boom boxes stacked on each other. One had two 15s and the other had two 12s, all with the usual mids and tweets. Had a couple of pretty good amps too. Well, I could see right over them through the mirror but sitting in the Escort GTs looking back was a wall of SOUND. Looked awsome. Also have a bendy map light from a Mustang GT for the area right between the visors. I had so many compliments, unbelieveable. I miss that which I had.... I still have the mirror . But like I said, I would have what you are showing us Jamie, it's really a good addition.

 

Looks good Jamie!!!!

 

http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=25605
A glimpse of my wink mirror...

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

 

I have one of those too, that is completely identical to the one in the old Mustangs, except mine has a little squarish dome light on the front of it like this one. I got mine out of a '83 Ford EXP. I planned to use it in my Maverick for a while, but have a new idea now. I plan to replace the stock visor clip with one of the '66 Mustang mounts. Then try to mount the compass/temp mirror I mentioned previously on the '66 rear view mirror mount. Haven't quite figured it all out yet, but I'm working on it. I do know the '66 Mustang mount fits the Maverick perfectly, you just have to drill three new holes, but the contour of it and all is right on. I have one I found in a '66 Fastback in the junkyard a while back and test fitted it in the Maverick.

 

That chrome bracket would look pretty nice. One of the reasons I went with the wink. My glass mounted one fell off one summer. One draw back with mine also is that I can't use the visors for the front, just the sides. Don't recall it being a big deal though since I have a small view to look through. Kinda reminds me of a wide screen when looking through the front.