Good luck with unbroken mirrors...

So - next few pictures show how to disassemble the mirror without breakage. It was basically pure luck the first time when I detached the mirror glass from its backing plate - that adhesive is normally strong. This time around, I decided to do things properly.

First I tested the mirror for correct adjustment operation - better to know now than later - and for me, no go at all.

The switch has a rocker with brass rollers, and a 'joystick' with three silver-plated cones. These are a frustration to polish and reinstall (work on the floor, not on a workbench, or you'll never find the pieces again...) Very satisfying when the mirror grinds into life in both directions. I think these motors are always noisy. The switch is usually the part that fails first.

Behind the bottom of the mirror glass, there are several ridges in the plastic. Engage a screwdriver and rotate - the picture shows where - and the glass complete with backing plate prises off reasonably easily. Detach the wires from the heating element. There are rivets in the metal film - one of mine had torn away. I wonder if all 164 mirrors are heated - if so, I've yet to see one that works! I have some 'wire glue' (conductive adhesive) to use for reassembly. I'm not sure that soldering on glass would be a good idea, but that may work.

The mirror adjustment platform (including motors) has an obstinate plug. Either try to release clips while pulling on plug (and stab hand in the process), or break off one clip quite by accident and pry the plug out. Three small Philips screws secure the platform to the frame - it is a tight press-fit onto the pillars. I may yet take the platform apart to grease the internals in an effort to reduce the noise.

I cut off the plugs so that wires pull through the hollow bolt of the mirror hinge. I remembered reading that on the forum before - and I have replacement terminals (non-insulated and proper crimp) of the correct 'tab' style to fit within the original plug bodies. With a smug feeling of preparation, I continued.

Wires pull through - black earth wire first, then sheathed orange wire (for heating), and then remaining three wires are loose.

Screwdriver jams nut so that 13mm deep socket removes hollow bolt.

There is one melted-over tube that secures the two housing halves, so this has to come off - I find a screwdriver 'drills' the melted plastic away. The other four melted-over tubes fasten the internal structure to the housing - there is no need to remove the internal structure, so those other four 'meltings' stay untouched.

With support/triangle out of the way, mirror housing pries apart. Housing is glued together - so a judicious series of pulling and prying, followed by a few loud snaps, gets it open. I think opening it is mainly required for the hollow-bolt refitting. It would be quite OK to paint the housings in a glued-together state, but getting the spring and nut into place would be very fiddly.

That's about it - I painted all relevant parts plus a replacement door handle. Note that this 164 originally had black mirrors, so it was tempting to get out the semi-gloss aerosol can, but since they were previously-painted, I perservered and laid on a basecoat - a bit more thoroughly than the previous painters - I painted the inside edges of the housing. Things are not quite perfect - it takes a great deal of work to get the triangle curvature smooth: easy for this to be uneven. Any crack repairs must be feathered really well. I used a grinding wheel (that powder/glue was even harder by now. I think the powder contains glass beads.)

Just needs a clearcoat now - I have a replacement bumper to prepare for my other 164 and I'm hoping to clear that at the same time... hopefully tomorrow.

I guess that putting the wires back in may be fun, but at least it will be easy to polish the glass and apply Rain-X.

-Alex

Last couple of pictures - I did think about polishing-up the alloy Audi-TT style - might actually suffer LESS corrosion that way rather than with paint/fillers to trap moisture...

A few days later, I sprayed on the clearcoat, which went reasonably well (some slight sags and runs which is fairly typical for cold weather and thick coats to avoid orange peel).

But the real satisfaction lay in realising that the mirror heating elements weren't working because the temperature-sensitive cutout devices had cut out. Both sides. I tried to obtain a small enough thermostatic switch from an electronics supplier, but couldn't find one. I tried various 5W (wirewound, ceramic) resistors, but got nowhere. In the end I made the judicious decision to just replace the devices with wire bridges. After all, the heated rear window circuit cuts out automatically thanks to software in the climate control panel.

Where the contacts had come away from the demister film, I tried to use 'wire glue' (black colour) to refasten them, but that wasn't strong enough. Instead I discovered that powder-reinforced superglue works well once it is painted over with conductive silver from a 'CAIG' blue pen. My first attempt was a mess but by No.4, I was getting tidier. These conductive pens are also excellent for repairing heated rear window traces.

I used contact adhesive to refasten the mirrors to the original white adhesive film. I didn't fancy trying to replace this film with strips of double-sided trim tape, though that would have been another option.

I took apart the mirror adjustment platforms - what an interesting assembly in there - a pin had dropped out of one of the main pivots that left the mirror a little loose. Some new grease makes the motors quieter and more eager.

Reassembly of the mirror was straightforward but I took care to grease the pivot point with rubber grease (safe for anything) so the mirrors are no longer seized and instead snap back and forth as intended (to avoid damage in accidental contact scenarios). Threading the wires was easy, and attaching new Wurth terminals with the correct type of crimp tool was especially satisfying.

I used glass polish to remove the water spots, and tested the mirror demisting by breathing on the glass...

The only slight snag is that the silver-blue paint turns out to be a bit more exotic than I thought - it has a purple pearl that seems to have faded on the car, so the mirrors look a little more blue/purple and a little less silver. That will be interesting when I repaint the bonnet, roof, and luggage compartment lid later this month...

-Alex

Few more pics. Left mirror is possibly not as tight against the triangle as it might be, but (see last picture of first post in thread) definitely a better fit than before. I think in these photos the colour mismatch is even worse than in real life, probably because I took these photos under fluorescent light and the colour is very angle-sensitive. But you can see what I was talking about.

Note to Alfisto Steve: outward appearance of my Spider belies the structural rust in the front suspension wishbone mountings and also (apparently) in one of the three thicknesses of sill where it meets the floor. The rest of the body looks fine, no rust bubbles anywhere. Fooled me.

This Spider came to NZ in 1990 from California. The steering wheel was moved over to the 'wrong' side using a rack from a FIAT 131, which is a little low-geared (very light, lighter than the 164's PAS!) but I'm sure it's probably sharper than the original worm-and-roller steering. The car saw a lot of wet-weather use in NZ which no doubt led to the corrosion it now has. At least 250,000 miles. It's on its second engine - the original 1756cc simply wore out, so it now has a Euro-spec 2-litre. I notice the suspension is tall and soft by usual FIAT standards - and the rear axle (my first car with a live rear axle) is a bit too mobile for my liking. Doesn't feel very 'planted'...

I spent several days completely rebuilding the brake system, as it was very erratic after 31 years of patchy maintenance. The pedal and brake booster were OK. Everything else got replaced - all four discs, pads, rear compensator, m/c, all hoses, caliper seals, front caliper pistons. While extracting the piston from one caliper (with the other caliper clamped), a brake hose burst! I was pleased I'd already bought the replacements.

None of that counted for much when the rust was found during the roadworthiness inspection. In disgust I've pushed it into my garage where it will wait until I get around to its full restoration. It won't be going anywhere for a long time. I never did get much chance to drive it (have only owned it for four months) but when I did, I found it quite a rugged experience. I think I also have been spoiled by my modern cars. I'm sure my first car (128 Coupe) was probably as noisy and unrefined as the Spider!

-Alex

Colour match really looked terrible in that last photo, which led me out to the garage to take another look. Though I guess the camera never lies and there is a difference there after all. Turns out the paint can be any colour from green to purple... and maybe blue if you're lucky!

This colour is not in the list at Alfa 164 TSB 49.93.01 - I think that 164s came in many more colours than on that list... plus, I discovered it's not 'blue metallic 477'.

EDIT: OK so I found this thread http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/164-168-1991-1995/42052-164-picture-thread-16.html#post568169 and as you can see, Alfisto Steve has found this colour, plus haden has a 945-blue 164 in NZ (presumably still has, unless it's the one I bought!)

Paint shop had the recipe for 945 in their system so at least someone, somewhere knows all the colours! Does anyone else here have a 945-coloured 164 and if so, have you had problems getting the paint to match?

-Alex

I felt the need to update this thread now that I've taken apart another mirror of unknown age - no Alfa Romeo script on the front of the mirror housing, but black plastic (I think that makes it a '91?) The mirrors I took apart previously in this thread were off an '89. Therefore, I suspect most readers will have different mirrors to what I showed.

So anyway - getting the glass off was NOT what I showed above. There is no ring to rotate. Instead, there are a number of plastic snap fingers and the white foam adhesive backing of the glass unfortunately holds the mirror tight to the motor plinth. It takes some guts with screwdrivers and a lot of luck to get the glass off. It's easier if you split the housing first - with the bezel removed from around the glass, there's better access. See pics.

Cheers,
-Alex