xkeots

Hi All,

My 77 door mirror keeps on falling out. I have gone through 4 sets of well nuts already. There is no backing plate inside the door. It is frustrating. Has anyone here ever had this problem and has a fix?

Thanks
Jack
77 C3

Easy Mike

Post a pic of the mirror's location. There is a tapping plate in the door and I'm wondering whether you've missed it.

Paul L

As Mike has said there will be a steel reinforcement plate with threaded holes on the interior side. You do not need well nuts on the driver's side.

xkeots

Sorry guys,

I have been working on cars for years. I went in there with the door panel off, I put a heavy magnet that can pick up 5 lbs over the area with no grab. I used lights down in the door, mirror holes and then up with a goose neck lamp. I used a snake and I fished for a plate. Nothing, the person that had it before me somehow removed it. I might get a piece of 1/16 or thicker inch steel, put it under the mirror gasket and mark holes. I can then tap & thread it, put it inside the door, hold it with the heavy magnet, put on one bolt then the other and hope that it will stay.
But, is there another or easier way?

Thanks
Jack

rajsid

Check out this diagram.
http://www.keenparts.com/pages/Catal...p?diagram=3205

Glassbowtie77

Do you have chrome mirrors or sport mirrors?

0Willcox Corvette

I'm not saying this is correct, but I tried the link above and it didn't work. So I thought I'd post a picture for Jack. When I went to the AIM for the 77 I thought the picture was not clear enough to use and decided to use on from the 1970 aim.

I was moving one over the other when I discovered the well nuts shown in the 77 aim. I was shocked since I've never seen a driver side mirror mounted with well nuts and even owned a 77 with chrome mirrors.

I've replaced that bracket in the door before and I did it by removing material from the outer door skin until I could feed a new fabricated bracket in the door. You can not access this from inside the door due to the door reinforcement so if there is a replacement made it has to be done from the outside. The original mirror brackets were held to the outer door panel skin with two aluminum rivets.

There is no room between that large panel reinforcement that runs horizontally inside the door.

I'm not saying the AIM is right, but it does present an interesting question.

Willcox

Blain

Here is what I did:

First a thin plate will only have a couple of threads unless a nut is welded to the back. If that is done you probably won't get it in place.

My answer is nut-zerts. Several trade names. If interested I'll get part numbers from my inventory.
Holes in door opened up to acommodate shoulder on insert

Pop rivet like tool to set insert


Plate, inserts, screws and base plate for measurements

Plate located with fish wire

Epoxy in a grout bag. OK, really the corner of a zip lock sandwich bag

Finished job

I posted these out of order.
Open up holes in door, Fish drilled plate into position, set inserts, apply epoxy into openings (with the intention of getting plenty on the plate to hold it in place for ever), being careful not to get it into threads. I wrapped long screws with masking tape and threaded into the insets to protect the threads while getting epoxy into place, one at a time swap out those long screws with screws that are equivalant in length to the final mounting screws and mount the base plate, tighten screws clean up excess epoxy and wait for it to cure.

I have more photos if you need more detail-PM me.

Blain

bluthundr

Looks good!

xkeots

You have an error in your SQL syntax. Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'AND ENDYEAR>= ORDER BY KEYWORD' at line 1

7T1vette

An excellent solution that is similar...or better than...the original design. Be certain to use something to reach inside the door and clean the surface being epoxied. Otherwise it may only work for the first mirror assembly, then dis-bond from vibration over time.

0Willcox Corvette

Blain:

Love this idea and I have some of these in the shop. . . I'll have to make notes in our books about this for the next time! Great idea for a very hard fix!

If GM had just cut a notch in the door reinforcement for access this problem would not exist.

Willcox

Paul L

Blain,
A simple but elegant solution. Many will benefit from your post. Thank you!

lawman1905

Blain
That's a great write up about the mirror repairs. If you could send me some more pictures I need to do the same for the passenger side on my 78.
Thanks,
Scott

LT1M21Vette

That thread is 8 years old...

Blains' stats:
Most Recent Message: 07-02-2011 08:29 PM

Good luck getting a reply.