Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 16:24:14 -0500
Reply-To: ddbjorkman@VERIZON.NET
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Bjorkman <ddbjorkman@VERIZON.NET>
Subject: Re: Rearview mirror
Content-type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
So I guess VW was smarter when the Bays were around, I wish the engineer that made that change for the Bay Westies was still around to do the same for the Vanagons.
I applaud you for making your own retrofit. That can be much easier that arguing with authority.
Dave B.
On 09/19/14, Stephen Grisanti wrote:
I thought about that and decided the hell with it. The modified stalk works fine and is what I'd have preferred to have in the first place. Less clutter up front.
Evidently, from what was discussed on Samba it was a Bay Westy mirror that has the long stalk. A Bay van that is a non-Westy has a shorter stalk (same length stalk as a Vanagon mirror) and that is what I got at a junkyard so that is what I hacked to make my frankenmirror.
Stephen
On Friday, September 19, 2014 12:08 PM, David Bjorkman <ddbjorkman@VERIZON.NET> wrote:
I think you need to go to another inspection station. I have been using the 2 mirror system for some time and the inspectors in MA never gave it a second glance. I find it handy due to the ability to set the lower mirror to look way, way back and the upper mirror to view the guy right on my bumper. Especially handy at night on dark roads. Getting the spot to hang the lower mirror correct took some thinking, so as not to set it so low I couldn't see beyond people or stuff in the back.
Dave
On 09/19/14, Stephen Grisanti wrote:
If you decide to go the FLAPS route with the glue-on mirror down low and you keep the stock mirror in its stock location, you might encounter the same bureaucratic problem I did during state inspection. The guy would not pass my van with the two-mirror setup that the PO had created, said he thought I'd find it too "confusing" and therefore unsafe. Would not accept my argument that I'd been driving the damn thing and found it to be safer than stock, and he removed it.Â
Rather than play the game of reinstalling it until the next inspection and then removing it again I hacked up a stock mirror and extended the stalk about four inches using 1/2" copper plumbing tubing. One interior mirror. Works fine. I still use the side mirrors and don't really need this one but it's nice to be able to see out past\beneath the upper cabinet.
Stephen
On Thursday, September 18, 2014 9:51 PM, Old Volks Home <oldvolkshome@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
Interesting - I don't have this problem with rear view in my 84 Westy &
Overhead Cabinet. But I do with the 84 GL and the front overhead AC.
But I tend to drive with my side mirrors out of habit of driving Buses and
Vanagons for decades. Most of the time I have the rear window curtains
shut across the glass.
Jim Thompson
84 GL 1.9 "Gloria"
84 Westfalia 2.1 "Ole Putt"
72 411 Station Wagon "Pug"
75 914 1.8 "Nancy"
Full Timing From March 1999 To January 2012
oldvolkshome@gmail.com
http://www.oldvolkshome.com
Find me on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Thompson/100000710343835
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On Thu, Sep 18, 2014 at 8:24 AM, David Bjorkman <ddbjorkman@verizon.net>
wrote:
> Actually, if you have a Westy, I would recommend you go to your local
> FLAPS and buy an after market mirror and glue it to your windshield at a
> location lower than what the stock position is. The mirrors on both the
> tintop and the Westy are in the same place, but in the Westy, the overhead
> cabinet in back obscures one's vision of the road looking way back down the
> road. With the after market mirror, you can place it lower on your
> windshield and achieve a much better rearward view.
> If you have the tintop, forget what I said and just replace the mirror
> with OEM.
>
> Dave B.
>
>
> On 09/17/14, The Bus Depot wrote:
>
> > Does anyone know where to buy a
> > rear view mirror for my 86 Vanagon?
> > Bus Depot doesn't carry.
>
>
> Yes we do...
>
> http://www.busdepot.com/251857501c01c
>
> Ron Salmon
> The Bus Depot, Inc.
> www.busdepot.com
>