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Date:         Wed, 23 Jul 2003 00:19:46 -0600
Reply-To:     Eric and Marica <eric.clarke@SHAW.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Eric and Marica <eric.clarke@SHAW.CA>
Subject:      Re: What do I need to do about this mirror!!!
Comments: To: Johnny DeVilla <johnny@JDEVILLA.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <AFCC75DB-BCCD-11D7-8BBF-000393D4F99E@jdevilla.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

I bought my 80 Westie with both mirrors wrapped in electrical tape - including cracked plastic and the whole bit. I set about to replace them and lo and behold the 'universal' replacements available at Canadian Tire (for $50 each) required drilling holes etc - I was not about to go down that road so I took mine apart.

I removed them from the van and undid the tensioning nut accessible through the base (with much tapping, patience, and wd40), the washer, spring, and a "half-ball-with-a-hex-hole-in-the-centre" piece off of the shaft coming out of the mirror piece. This piece was welded on by rust and once I removed it (had to use a vice I believe) and cleaned / restored all of the pieces it turns out that the half-ball piece is intended to float along the hex shaft.

I used a hot glue gun to fill the voided area behind the worst crack in the plastic, and then used model airplane glue to vulcanize / weld the casing pieces back together. I went over the whole thing with fine steel wool (obviously not the glass) and it looks brand new.

Once the spring, washer and nut went back on nice and tight with a gloss of white lithium, I reinstalled the mirrors and for the most part it holds like glue. I had to install a second washer in my PS mirror as I think the spring has lost some bounce but other than that, they hold tight driving down even the worst washboard logging roads (to my brother-in-law's).

Good Luck,

Eric 80 Westie "Rusty"

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Johnny DeVilla Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 11:23 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: What do I need to do about this mirror!!!

Ok so my Mac runs great, and my Westy runs pretty damn good (boy I am glad I work from home), but every few days I throw my surfboard on top, head for the beach and wonder, what the hell can I do about the passenger mirror. I can get it set perfect see all the traffic on the left, then next time I want to pass a car(yea there are some drivers that even me in my Westy will have to get around) and bam there it is pointed at my sliding door. I put one of those nifty concave mirrors on it, and that seems to keep me from running people off the rode(this is LA nobody looks before changing lanes), but having driven across the US and Canada with a Trailer 4 times in a rock and roll band, I kinda got used to mirrors. Does anyone have a solution to this? Chewing gum, super glue? My Hula girl and Tiki are resting comfortably on the dash thanks to the magnets (didn't even know it was metal)

Johnny 81 Westy


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