OK, so I have been looking at swapping out the stock mirrors for a while. I looked at A LOT of options, like the new Camaro, and even some foreign cars. I knew I was not going to be able to afford the exotic $500 options. I wanted to use the small triangle area that we don't use for anything, and other makes use for the mirror mounting location. I also knew that I could not just mount the mirror up to that triangle piece of plastic, so in my head, I designed a metal plate that I would mount to the door and put the mirror it. Now, before I started, I had to get the mirrors. As I drove around for the last few months I would note which mirrors looked like they were a close fit to the area I wanted to use. A lot of really great looking mirrors looked close, and unfortunally they were always the expensive ones. Finally I noticed that the 97 Chevy Lumina mirror was a close fit. I got lucky and a few weeks ago, a 97 Lumina was parked next to a 88 Fiero coupe in the junk yard. I did some initial measuring, and it was a perfect fit. I removed the drivers/passengers side mirrors and paid $26 buck each. Now I had my mirrors.
So first I removed the stock ones, and then I had to remove the plastic triangle piece to make room. Once the plastic trim piece was removed, I could see I had lots of room. A cardboard template was made and transfered to steel and then after a lot of trial and error, the brackets were done. The pictures below show the driverside bracket being fitted, and was taken after the passenger side was done. The driverside was a lot faster once we figured out all the small details. The bracket does not show the support added to keep it from flexing. The side picture with the mirror mounted was taken in my garage late last night (because I forgot to take one of the car in the shop with all the lights and room). Also, just for kicks, I photoshopped over the hole in the door just to get an idea of what it will look like. The other shots show the hole still in the door skin.
Anyway, just wanted to post these. Overall, I just love the look. It is exactly what I was looking for.
Are you planning on some kind of trim cover on the inside to finish it off?
Nice job!
yea, its not done yet, these pics were taken as we were mocking it up, getting the shape right and the fitting of the mirrors. I still have to do the paint and finish work.
some daylight shots. Lighting is not the best, its high noon so lots of shadow. Its a very subtle mod, most will not even notice it. Overall shape and location is very close to stock.
Rob
[This message has been edited by qwikgta (edited 03-10-2012).]
some daylight shots. Lighting is not the best, its high noon so lots of shadow. Its a very subtle mod, most will not even notice it. Overall shape and location is very close to stock.
Rob
Sweet! I just saw these same mirrors a few weeks ago and wondered if anyone had tried them. Nice mod
Dr. W.
------------------ Is your Fastback GT's trunk seal shot? My Gen III replacement GT trunk seals with solid molded corners are now in production. $95 + $15 flat rate shipping to the US (contact me for international shipping rates) or buy two and pay only a single shipping rate! More info can be found here GT Trunk Seal Project
Nice. The mirror cleans up the ugly triangular area of our cars. Is the newer mirror lighter? You should post your pics on the mirror thread.
Thanks. I posted to that thread earler.
Yes, they are way lighter then the stock ones. They are made of plastic vice the metal stock ones. Also, I removed the wire harness, because I am using them as maual mirrors now. Manual in the sence that I have to manually move the mirror to the correct position by hand.
Those look great! Do they stick out from the body a little more than stock? Also, how's the viewable area through the mirror? I would imagine that the mirror itself has a little more surface area but visibly noticeable from the drivers seat?
well, this bracket is only 16 gauge, and it does flex. It has a tab welded on in the "L" area and that stops the flexing for the lower half. When the door is closed the bracket contacts the frame just before full closed, so it forms a nice tight seal against the frame. There is no way to push the mirror up (into the frame of the car) when closed and if you push down on the mirror then yes, you could just bend the bracket. It only moves a few MM before the bottom of the mirror touch's the door skin, so it can only "bend" so much. It would have to break off the car first.
Only issue right now is that the metal area I mounted the bracket too is thin and bends very easy. Just below this top thin gauge metal is a very thick metel area that supports the door hinge. We had to drill through the thin door skin area with some self tapping screws just to get the bracket to stay. The top metal area of the door is more for looks than support.
Its ugly when open, but closed it looks good. I was looking over the other thread about "modern mirrors" and I love the Red GT on page 5. The 3/16 steel brackets he made for the mirrors is perfect, and for my "version 2.0" I am going to do up some brackets and weld them on the door just like he did.
I have yet to look at that area of the a-pillar, but is there any reason you couldn't remove the inside trim and simply bolt them to the pillar? It's not easy to tell from the pics whether or not there would be interference with the window while the door is open.
I have yet to look at that area of the a-pillar, but is there any reason you couldn't remove the inside trim and simply bolt them to the pillar? It's not easy to tell from the pics whether or not there would be interference with the window while the door is open.
There would be interference with the window. The door swings forward just enough to contact a fixed mirror.
There would be interference with the window. The door swings forward just enough to contact a fixed mirror.
Yep, the area will not work for a mirror like this. Others have done it, but they have used mirrors that have a longer support arm. Im still watching for others I like, if I find some smaller ones, I'll use them too. Now that I have done this much, it should be easy to modify another set of brackets to fit other mirrors. More on "version 2.0"
For the inside, maybe you can modify and use the plastic triangle from the opposite side? Attach securely to the inside of your plate and it might even help to strengthen the entire assemby.
Well, I can get to two of the three screws and the one on front was difficult because it is up under the plastic for the pillar. The top one looks most difficult to reach, but I decided not to push it until I got my mirrors in, which I just ordered. In case anyone wonders, I made a template of the triangular piece on the Fiero and compared it to the piece on my son`s BMW 318I and they are almost identical. Thus, I ordered M-3 mirrors, which the mid 90`s M-3 and the 3-series are basically the same body. When I start to adapt the M-3 mirrors to the Fiero I will start a new thread.
That looks great. I honestly hate the stock mirrors on the Fiero. The fact that they don't collapse makes them even worse. They are the perfect height for a 6yo kid who isn't paying attention. We've had many an injury in this family.
I wonder, instead of using metal to hold it, what if you fabricated the same shape using a piece of 1/4" Lexan? That stuff is strong, rigid, and can take a pounding. Hell they use the stuff to make bullet-proof windows.
Originally posted by Ayrow: I wonder, instead of using metal to hold it, what if you fabricated the same shape using a piece of 1/4" Lexan? That stuff is strong, rigid, and can take a pounding. Hell they use the stuff to make bullet-proof windows.
Lexan is too rigid/stiff to be good for this. It is incredibly hard to bend or shape to the correct angle. Anyone doing it really needs to be someone who does it professionally for a living, and has been doing it for a while. Trying to bend a flat sheet of lexan in your garage at home will probably result in it breaking, or getting ruined by heat. Steel and aluminum are much more forgiving here. I don't see any reason to not use them for this, unless investing a significantly large sum of money to lose a few ounces of weight right there is somehow worthwhile to you.
Thanks for the input guys. The 16 gauge metal is too thin, but its working fine. I found another thread that has info on upgraded mirrors and posted a few other pics there. I like the metal bracket that is being used on the Red GT in the last few pics on that thread. I plan to do that on version 2.0 As for the removal of rhe plastic triangle, I could not get it off either, so I cut it off. I knew I was going to do this, so I didn't care that I was cutting it off. After it is removed, you see how much room you have to work with. While I didn't measure any other mirrors, from my observations many look as if they fit, the more expensive, the better.