Electric Side Mirrors

I always wanted electric mirrors. The remote control mirrors on the Elky were marginal at best for getting properly set, and they were small ( bullet sport mirrors). My goal was to find a mirror that was electric, GM, easily found, and would fit in the same location as the Bullet Mirrors. I did a lot of research, and found that Corvettes (87) had electric mirrors, but they are very hard to find, and are very expensive. Grand Prix's also had an option, but again hard to find. 82-92 F-body mirrors are discussed a lot. They have the same internal motor that will fit an '87-88 Monte Carlo or El Camino mirror. However, they mount in a different location on the door, and the F-body mirrors have a different curvature. I tried to make a mount that would fit inside a Sport Bullet mirror and mount an electric motor from the F-body mirror. It may be doable, but not easy. I finally found some that I think will work nicely. They are from a '98 LeSabre, but the mirrors range in date from early to late '90's. Below is a picture of the mirror, both off the car and installed.

I had to fabricate mounts for both sides. This was done using material purchased on Ebay- Tivar HDMW black material 1" think. Once you have blanks cut to a rough size it takes about 2-3 hours of shaping to get a finished product for each side. If you used the F-body mirrors, you would still have to fabricate mounts. Even with that, the F-body mirrors would sit very low on the door if mounted in the original G-body location- too low in my opinion.

PARTS

1. Obtain a piece of the TIVAR material, or something similar. It needs to be 1" think minimum, 7" long by 2-1/2" wide for each side.
2. Mirrors can be purchased on Ebay new for about $26. Pick and Pull prices were $10 for me. If I was to to do it over, I would buy the new ones. If you are going to the pick and pull, take along a battery from your electric drill and some jumper cables. You can jumper the remote switch's orange and black wires, and test the mirrors before you pull them off. The battery also comes in useful to lower the window of the donor car. Just jumper the door window motor, or the window switch (Pink/blk and Blk) like you did the mirror switch.
3. You will need the connectors at each mirror and as much of the harness as you can get.
4. Obtain the switch from the door as well. If you have a remote drivers mirror, the electric switch will fit into your Bezel . If you don't have remote mirrors, get a Remote Mirror Bezel from the door panel of a donor g-body car at the pick and pull. Either way, you'll need a small Allen key for removal.
5. Get two 1/4-20 by 1" screw inserts, and 2 1/4-20 t-nuts. 2-1/4-20 x3/4" machine screws, and 2-1/4-20x1" machine screws- stainless steel would be good
6. A piece of the bottom door Quiet Seal from a G-body can be used for making the gasket. It's about 4" wide by 3' long, if you haven't seen one.
7. Clear RTV adhesive
8. Paint and Clear Coat

TOOLS

#10 Torx Screwdriver, 10MM socket wrench, 10mm wrench, 5/16 socket and wrench ( I found some cars had 10mm nuts on the mirrors, other 5/16"), Assorted drill bits, Die Grinder with Carbide Cutting bit ( may be able to use a dremel), sandpaper, propane torch ( optional- I used this to Flame Treat the finished mounts), razor knife, flat 1.5" wide flexible putty knife.

WIRING

I have attached a wiring diagram I found on the net that worked pretty good. Before going further, I would suggest wiring up the motors and switch, and make sure you have everything as you need it. I found that the mirrors had a different pin-out from the harness that I acquired, but the pins are easily popped out and swapped. For running from the switch to the passenger side, you will only need three conductors ( two of the 4 conductors on the mirrors are wired together). It is almost impossible to get this part of the harness out of the donor car.

Inside the drivers door, I tapped into power from the orange wire on the Power Door Locks. Initially, I also tapped into the ground wire for the locks, but found that operating the mirrors caused the locks to operate. I either have a bad ground, or... Anyway, I grounded the Mirrors to the drivers door with a self tapping screw, and everything was fine. You now have to run the three conductor wires through the grommet on the drivers door, under the dash, and through the grommet on the passengers door. Splice in the connectors on both doors, and you should be good to go.

FABRICATION

Dis-assembly of the mirror is required to install the mounting hardware. It also makes it easier to handle while you are shaping the mount, and for painting. The mirrors are attached to the mirror backing with clear RTV. If you slide the flexible putty knife between the mirror and the backing, you can push the putty knife in and cut the RTV. Wear gloves when doing this as there is always a chance of breaking a mirror. I took mine off several times doing the project with no issues, but you never know. Replacement glass is available on E-bay.

Once the glass is off, there are three screws holding the motor to the mirror. Use a #10 torx screwdriver to remove them. remove the mirror from the housing, mark it as driver or passenger, and store it with the screws in a baggy.

Next, take the two nuts that mounted the mirror to the donor car and "Jam" them together on one of the studs. You should now be able to unscrew the stud using the bottom nut. The studs screw into the mirror base like a sheet metal screw. Be careful here- the mirror is plastic. Repeat for the other studs. Note that you will do this also for the mirrors you are taking off the car, so you can re-use the studs from the G-body on your new mount. The G-body mirrors are metal, and the studs are machined threads.

MOUNT FABRICATION.

The raw material needs to be cut into a blank that is approx 2 1/2" wide by 1" thick by 7" long. Start by making a work piece that is 7" wide by approx 12-18" . Getting the 45 degree cross cut is not too difficult. A table saw, or even a skill saw will work. The hard angle is the 30 degrees side. You can do this with a table saw, by mounting the work material vertically and running it through using the rip fence. I didn't have access to a table saw, so I used a hand saw with the material clamped into a vise. Not pretty, but it worked.

Once you have the blank, you want to make holes to mount the mirror. My Mirror took 1/2" holes drilled 13/32 deep, centered on the widest surface of the blank ( the 2.5" side). The holes are 3 13/32 apart. Double check this measurement against your mirror. make sure that you will have coverage of the block that extends all the way around your mirror once it is seated in these holes. Start by drilling a 17/64 hole through the material. This hole is at a 15 degree angle to the surface where the mirror mounts. You will see this when you look at the angle of the mounting studs coming out of the bottom of the mirror. If you have a drill press, you can get this 15 degree angle easily by using the scrap end of the 45 degree cut you have remaining after making the blank. Lay the 30 degree side against the 45, and you have 75 degrees, or 15 degrees for your drill angle.

You can use the gasket that came with the mirror to double check you position of the holes prior to drilling, to make sure you have enough material all the way around for shaping.

Next, take the mirror heads and drill a hole through the mounting studs, large enough to accept the screw stud you purchased. I think mine was .312 in diameter, but check yours before drilling. The screw stud will mount in the front hole, but the back hole is too tight for one to fit. I used the T-nut there, but you will have to cut all the prongs off the nut, and you will have to trim at least 1/2 of the flat mounting surface off the t-nut to get it to fit.

Here, you can see the screw stud and the t-nut, and you can see the countersunk holes where the machine screws go through the mount to secure the mirror. For information, I initially used sheet metal screws here, similar in thread to the studs I removed. It only took two days after installation before I bumped into the Mirror and both screws failed, hence version 2. In this picture you can also see the mounting studs that were removed from the G-body mirrors and threaded into the new mount. You will do this step later.

Here you can see the mounting stud and T-nut inside the mirror

Next step is to get a rough shape on the mounting block. Attach the mirror to the block, and draw a line all the way around the mirror. I used a silver sharpie. Remove the block and remove a fair portion of the material outside the lines. I used a cut-off wheel . Alternatively, you can use the die grinder to take this material down. It only takes a little more time.

Next step is to refine the shape. re-install the block on the mirror and begin shaping using the Die Grinder. My fit was tight enough that I did not have to use the mounting screws. If yours is not this tight, use the screws to hold the block while shaping. Wear eye protection, and gloves. I did this holding the mirror/block in my left hand, and shaping with the die grinder in my right. The angles are right for what you need. You just need to creep up on the edge of the mirror, keeping everything in plane. You will see the shape coming together. Don't get too aggressive. A little at a time works best. You can always take more off, but the alternative is a new block.

In this series of pictures, you can see the mount getting progressively closer to final shape.

Note that the edge of the mount that faces the sky is very thin- less than 1/8" thick. We'll also be placing a gasket against this surface later.

Now there are only a couple of steps left. First is to shape the surface of the mount that fits against the door. The door has a slight curvature top to bottom, so we need to try and match that as closely as possible on the new mount. It only takes a little material removal to get us there. I used a sanding roll in the die die grinder. You could also use a sanding drum in the drill press or on an electric drill. Think in terms that the very top edge of the mount needs to be contacting the door, and the very bottom edge needs to contact the door. What's in between needs to be removed slightly to make the mount surface concave. If you place the mount against your door and look down, you will start to see where you have gaps, and where it is touching the door. Keep shaping until you have the fit you want. it doesn't take a lot- maybe .05 to .1 inch max in the center.

Now, to the other side, where the mirror mounts. If you can consider that the mirror was made to mount to a curving door, you can see that the mirror has that same sort of curve we just made on the bottom of the mount. For a perfect fit, the top of the mount, where it meets the mirror, needs to have a slightly convex curvature ( where the center of the mount is higher than the top and bottom edges.) Again, I used the sanding roll to remove material from the edge inward for that perfect fit. Again- not much is required.

Once you are happy with the fit, repeat for the other mirror!

Just a few final steps. You will need to drill and tap the mount for the studs from your stock mirrors. I left this until I took the mirrors off the car, as I have found that the spacing on these holes varies from model to model. ON mine, the studs were metric, 6mm x1.00. I used a 3/16 drill for the primary tap size. You can use the gasket from the stock mirror to help locate these holes, and for a general location of the center hole for the wiring. tap and insert the studs, using locktite on the threads. Alternately, you can drill through the block, and install a long screw from the backside. This would ultimately be a better solution, as it would preclude the threads being stripped out should someone bump hard into the mirror. The holes are very close to the mounting stud holes for the mirror, so be careful with your location. Drill them at 90 degrees to the mounting surface. You will also need to drill the hole for the wiring to fit though. On my mirrors, a 3/4 hole was sufficient for the plug to fit though. using the stock gasket, mark the location of the hole. I drilled mine on a 15 degree angle from the mounting surface of the door towards the front of the mirror. This was because the cable coming through the mirror exits the bottom of the new mirror slightly forward of the stock hole location. You'll see this as you start to assemble with the completed mirror. i also found the holes in my door were too small for the connector to fit. Easily fixed with a Unibit. Be sure to paint any cut edges on the door to prevent rust.

The last step prior to assembly was final finish of the mount. I wanted black, so leaving the material virgin seemed like a good idea. I sanded with progressive grades of wet/dry, but I just couldn't get a smooth finish on this material. I finally tried Flame Treating it with a propane torch, and the result was a smooth and glossy finish. I believe it could also be painted - just didn't try.

Assuming you have painted your mirror housings, assemble the mirror motor to the housing, and then the mount to the housing. Attach the mirror to the housing using Clear RTV Adhesive and let dry for at least a few hours. Mount the mirrors to the door and test. Hope you enjoy.

One other change I did on my vehicle. I had the remote passenger mirror(manual), with the operating lever in the dash to the right of the steering column. Removing this left a hole. I took the bezel from the remote mirror, and drilled out the hole to accommodate a cigarette lighter. I sanded and painted the face of the bezel satin black. I now have a connector where it is easy to plug in a GPS or Cell phone charger. If you see my other project on this site where I installed the Electronic HVAC controller, you will see that I lost the Cigarette Lighter's standard location, so that was another reason for this choice. Use your imagination to put something there that you would enjoy- switches, another gauge, ...

To see all the pictures I took on this project, visit Darby's Google Pictures of Side Mirrors