Mirrors: doors or wings?

[CAR]

So for your car Chris I would suggest door mirrors, but not the original type in the usual position, they are hopeless.

Colin.

Possibly this is a height thing. I always felt the standard position was too far back and a little low.
Certainly Amanda found that the passenger one was half obscured by the top of the door, she is quite short in the back. So for 'us' they were hopeless.
I know David has the Stag mirrors on his estate but in the standard position, where as ours are fixed higher up and we have no problem with adjustment.

Colin

[Clifford Pope]

I've left the wing mirrors on a Mk1 mainly for authenticity and because they look nice (trapezium shape, if that is the word?), but i must admit to the practical advantages of door mirrors.

One advantage wing mirrors do have however is that the angle between the mirrors is narrow enough for both to be visible at once without turning one's head, just flicking the eyes. With door mirrors, eg when reversing, you have to keep moving your head from one to the other.

[Chris Saunders]

Hi folks

Thanks for all the replies.

Colin, I’ve had a good look at HOE on your blog. Are these the mirrors you’ve got?

http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-GRID008613

YKC2960SQUARE

YKC2959SQUARE

I believe they are TEX mirrors (http://www.texautomotive.com/classic_ex ... rrors.html)

Viewmaster Springback
RH: MB321C (Convex Glass)
LH: MB323C (Convex Glass)

Regards
Chris

[CAR]

They are those mirrors Chris.
If it was me (from experience) I wouldn't buy them new (again) I would hunt out some decent secondhand ones.
I have obtained the parts off the bay to redo ours. The heads are fine but the arms are very poor quality now. Admittedly we were using the estate all year round but the arms became pitted and poor in less than 12mths.
The secondhand ones I bought are worn but not pitted.

Those mirrors were fitted to Stags as you know and 70s XJ6/12s
Colin

[johnnydog]

I would agree with Colin (craj) - the Tex reproduction mirrors currently available are not the same quality as the ones originally fitted to our cars. Where the mirror head fastens to the mirror body seems a weak spot, and they regularly needs tightening to prevent the mirror head from moving at speed (?!?).
Also from memory, the earlier (original ones) had a large coil spring behind the mirror glass to keep the tension, whereas the 'reproduction' ones have four foam pads stuck on the rear of the glass for the same job - you've guessed it, the pads fall off resulting in the glass rattling in the mirror head.
I would also agree that you would be better to find some good used ones of the earlier / original type. The two are easily distinguishable - the early ones have a more curved back (opposite side to the fixing grub screw) on the mounting, whereas the reproduction type is virtually straight.
Another point is that the reproduction type have a thicker plastic mounting plate to the door panel that doesn't fit very well, and a plastic mount for the actual mirror mount to fasten on to and which the grub secures against - these break easily if knocked - the early mirrors had light metal ones which are stronger (there's two types of these as well!), but still break if the mirror is knocked hard before damage is caused to the door skin.
Useless bits of information are always useful to someone!!!