[dabigboy]

I just picked up a nice new passenger's side mirror for my S3 but now I can't get the old one out.......I'm into the door and I see the bracket for the mirror is held on by two 13mm nuts, but I can't get them to budge! I think if I could get my ratchet with an extender on the nut, I could break it loose, but because of the geometry of the door I can't do that (extender needs to swing up another 10 degrees or so to be vertical on the nut, but it can't because the opening on the inside panel of the door is too low). I tried it with no extender and just putting my ratchet up into the door, but I can't get a good enough grip on it apparently...ditto when attempting to use a box wrench. I don't see any signs of corrosion in there, the nuts are just torqued down like crazy....or is there some sort of thread locking compound used by the factory? I can put a fair amount of force on the nut with a box wrench, but not enough. What's the trick?

 

[peterlund]

If I remember correctly, these nuts you see are spot welded to the interior of the door. Look at the base of the mirror where it meets the outside of the door, at the tapered end to the rear of the car. THere should be a small ,possibly covered with a flap of rubber, allen screw that holds the mirror onto a bracket. The bracket is attatched to the car by two threaded bolts that go into the spot welded nuts you are trying to remove.
good luck

 

[dabigboy]

Thanks, your info was spot-on.

I had to modify the new bracket slightly, but now the new mirror is in and looking sweet.

 

[WIP]

Howdy... mine is an 84, I plan on replacing my side mirrors either tonight or tomorrow. Am I to understand that I do NOT need to get into the door panels? I can replace from the outside? That would be nice. Is this the case?

Thanks!

 

[peterlund]

Shoot out a photo of your mirrors. The usual way to remove the mirror is to loosen a retaining screw on the outside of the mirror, and it should slide free of the base housing... sort of like a bathroom towel bar is mounted.... at least here in the states.
Good luck. Pictures will give a huge advantage in my feeble diagnostics.. Or beer, that helps too!

 

[RandallM]

Hey Bigboy,

Where did you find new mirrors?

 

[WIP]

Howdy again, hey Peter you are correct on the removing technique... one allen screw and off it is. I'm with Randall though... where did DaBigBoy find his mirrors? I spent most of this evening going from place to place to try and find a temp replacement, until I could find OEM.. found nothing that would fit. Bummer as all I need is the rubber outside piece that is supposed to attach everything together. It's the piece that goes around the entire mirror and connects to the base that is attached to the car. So, if anyone has any ideas for 3rd party mirrors and where to buy, that would be awesome as my Spider is sort of my daily driver to work etc.

Thanks folks.

Sorry, could not post a photo, as my camera is not available to me at this time. Sent back for warranty work.

 

[FrancosAlfa]

These are the replacements that I went with... non OMG's but I think they really look great.

Here's another shot..

They are called Empi spyder F1 racing mirrors. Mirrors, Wipers and Accessories

Dansperformance did not have any more, but I found someone in vermont that sold them for VW buggies. They use the original mounting holes for a bracket that the mirror then attaches onto. Supposedly, there is a Ferrari model that uses them.

If you spend a day on the Google machine I'll bet you can find them.

KKKKFL

 

[WIP]

Wow! Those look really nice! Nice car as well!

I will check around Google and see if I can find those, nice, real nice.

Also, in the event I can't... has anyone ever successfully "repaired" their broken ones... assuming they were broke like mine... where the bottom black plastic case split in half. If so, how?

Now, off to google... hoping to find a pair like you found. Thanks folks!

 

[FrancosAlfa]

If you are talking about the Daytona model, the top half has a potted metal stem that has a thread that is about 1 inch long. This stem sticks through the bottom piece and has a spring and then a nut to apply the pressure. Mine snapped off where the threading ended, but I still have about a half inch of stem to work with. If I can thread the remaining piece I will cut the spring in half and try to re-assemble. Trying to thread the remainder is proving difficult, hence I purchased the EMPI mirrors for stand ins. I actually like them better looks wise, but they are not powered.

KKKKFL

 

[SamW]

Thanks for this thread, my mirrors were shaking all over the place and I too took the door panels off and tried to tighten the nuts, so, yesterday I pulled out the allen wrench and tightened them both, THANKS!!!

 

[WIP]

Quick update from my end... I ended up repairing the original one... drilled a small pilot hole through a certain area... used a long skinny bolt, recessed both ends. Put it all back together... heck its on tighter now that when I bought the car. (-;

Anyways, reckon I'm pretty happy with my repair, its tight, and you cannot see the drill hole or skinny nut/bolt combination because of where I made the repair. Whats the old saying, necessity is the mother of invention. (-;

Thanks folks appreciate the help... had this repair not worked I would have gone another route I'm sure as driving with no mirror was not fun, especially on the drivers side. LOL

 

[peterlund]

Quick update from my end... I ended up repairing the original one... drilled a small pilot hole through a certain area... used a long skinny bolt, recessed both ends. Put it all back together... heck its on tighter now that when I bought the car. (-;

Anyways, reckon I'm pretty happy with my repair, its tight, and you cannot see the drill hole or skinny nut/bolt combination because of where I made the repair. Whats the old saying, necessity is the mother of invention. (-;

Thanks folks appreciate the help... had this repair not worked I would have gone another route I'm sure as driving with no mirror was not fun, especially on the drivers side. LOL

Hope you took a few pictures along the way... This is the "good stuff" we all crave to see. Glad you were able to do a Gilligans Island repair with the items you had at your disposal. I too think that this is what Alfa's are all about.

 

[WIP]

Howdy - sorry for the delay... No, didn't take any photos along the way... sorry, didn't think it was going to work out as well as it did. But, as soon as I get my camera charged up... I'll try and take a few shots of the finished product with some play by play etc... I am pretty happy with the way it turned out... and it is on there "but good" now. So, will update this thread once I take some photos etc... should be able to tell what I did from those. Stay tuned. (-;