My long story:

OK, it all started when I bought the car years ago. The Pass. side mirror had a crack down the center, and the drivers was a full power mirror but was kinda loose and flopping around. I tried to fix (or tighten up) the loose driver's side mirror by pushing the ball thingy back into it's plastic socket.

Never held for long since the plastic socket was cracked, so I found another newer thirdgen with a good drivers mirror (different color) at the junkyard and started replacing the innards....found out the hard way that the mounting screws for the inside were in a different place so I couldn't use it at all. It seems 82-84 mirrors are just a little different, so I put my broken innards back in and glued the thing in one position.

A few more years go by, and I finally (stupidly) get the car painted with the crappy mirrors on it, and they look great......BUT....I don't know whether the shop tried to adjust them or what, but now both mirrors are cracked in half, and both were loose and flopping around - totally useless.

I've since replaced those with a black set I bought locally (car is silver) - The black paint is noticibly old and worn when you look close, but they work great. The drivers is a cable, and the pass. is a regular one. It doesn't really look too bad, but I'd prefer to somehow get my nice silver ones repaired and back on the car.

Can I take the entire insides out of the black mirrors and put them in my nice painted ones without breaking anything?? I tried a search, but couldn't find anything.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

can you take your nice black mirrors to the same painter and ask them to paint match them?

 

Hey Traviz!

Yeah, I could do that, but the paint I have isn't an everyday regular silver he always uses (Pepper metallic gray) so it wouldn't be cheap. I'm kinda looking at that option as my last resort.

 

Anyone? So can I take the insides out of a good set of mirrors and put them in my nice painted ones, or will I screw them all up trying??

-Or is it better to just have the black ones painted??

 

The mirror guts just bolt into the mirror housing. There are three small phillips head screws, remove them and all the guts come out. They're just not easy to see or get at with the mirror glass installed.

 

Thanks for the info Drew! I guess I'll try changing out the insides and see what happens then. With any luck, I won't break anything.