Alternate OEM door mirrors?

[LorenB667]

Av8ferg did you ever get a replacement for your mirror? I've been looking for an original mirror for my 76 like the one on the red Z in your first picture.

[Richie G]

On 12/18/2021 at 6:05 AM, Zup said:

Did you use the OEM 77 mirror or one for a 240Z??

Don't know if you have seen these Jeff:

 

Here's a link:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/154739819489?hash=item24073643e1:g:rPYAAOSweEFbCevK

Funny that the price of a reverse engineered passenger side copy of the 240Z OEM mirror is about half the cost of a new Nissan driver's side one!

Edited December 18, 2021 by Zup
added info.

 

On 1/30/2022 at 8:27 AM, Patcon said:

His comment about "if installed on the passenger side, I have been told, you can't see out of it..." is interesting

OK so I stumbled on this old thread, dipped my toes in, and BINGO its the elusive unicorn of mirrors.  Its an OEM RH mirror that when placed on our LH cars passenger side is a perfect match to the driver side.  his comment about not working on passenger side was in reference to the passenger side of a RH car.

 

[KenFirch]

19 hours ago, Richie G said:

OK so I stumbled on this old thread, dipped my toes in, and BINGO its the elusive unicorn of mirrors.  Its an OEM RH mirror that when placed on our LH cars passenger side is a perfect match to the driver side.  his comment about not working on passenger side was in reference to the passenger side of a RH car.

Okay, I just bought one too, hopefully works as said.  One of my winter projects is to add RH mirror and replace LH mirror, which annoyingly vibrates out of position.

I've had the door innards apart years ago, but can't remember if there's a way to change/add mirrors without removing door glass.  Doable?  

[Richie G]

3 minutes ago, KenFirch said:

I've had the door innards apart years ago, but can't remember if there's a way to change/add mirrors without removing door glass.  Doable?  

@KenFirch i was able to yes.  I left the glass all the way up and if you are skinny enough like me you can slide your hand / forearm in and reach it.  For me I used the largest hole closest to the front of the door right below the small window channel and the mirror itself.  I reached in horizontally as if i was trying to reach for the lock side of the door on the bottom.  Once the arm was in i just rotated the elbow until my arm was 90 degrees up right under the mirror.  Single bolt with a small driver and was good to go.

[CanTechZ]

@Richie G great score on the 96302-E4600 RH mirror. Are you concerned that it might not have enough angle adjustment, if it was designed to be used in a right hand drive S30? I measured the angular viewing range on the new OE LH mirror (96301-E4600) I recently purchased for the resto on my 1970 HLS30. The range was from 85 to 66 degrees. A range of 19 degrees. Just for reference on my '96 Tacoma the RH mirror is at 60 degrees, and is also convex.

[Richie G]

@CanTechZ maybe not as much as I should have lol. Honestly for me it was two things the Aesthetics of it and sure the usability I haven't installed it yet plus my seats are out for some floorboard repair so I probably really won't know until I get everything all back together again I'm sure it must be better than the one I had before maybe not perfect but probably about as good as it's going to get for a guy like me.

[CanTechZ]

7 minutes ago, Richie G said:

@CanTechZ maybe not as much as I should have lol. Honestly for me it was two things the Aesthetics of it and sure the usability I haven't installed it yet plus my seats are out for some floorboard repair so I probably really won't know until I get everything all back together again I'm sure it must be better than the one I had before maybe not perfect but probably about as good as it's going to get for a guy like me.

I'm sure it will look great, and hopefully function good as well. When you get your passenger seat in, you could try adjusting the LH door mirror to check what you can see from the right side looking through the existing LH mirror. It will likely be similar to what you see from the drivers seat looking at your new RH mirror.

It would be interesting to see what viewing angle range your new RH mirror has, if you have a protractor.

[Richie G]

It will probably be a while till I get either seat in but I can try and do some measurements either later today or over the weekend will report back here

[Patcon]

Is it possible to take a convex mirror from a donor mirror and cut it down for retrofit? I don't know how the glass mounts...

[Richie G]

Ive tried to measure and im pretty close to your measurements.  Now I dont have a protractor, just some chopsticks and a square lol but my differential was about 20-21 degrees similar to yours.  I'm sure the measurements you're taking are more accurate.  when i put it up against my LH mirror its near identical in range but the older one doesnt move as easily so I'm sure if they were both new they would be exact.

[Richie G]

OK so i mounted the mirror today and am very pleased with the results.  Symmetry is perfect, not a great pic because of limited space but best I could do:

Now for sight lines, not "perfect" but certainly usable.  I don't have seats in yet so I had a couple of cushions in there and I tried to simulate where I would be.  To fully see a normal viewing angle you do have to lean in towards the console a bit but not like you're falling out of your seat.  A stretch of the neck basically gets you there.  I'm only 5'9" so I tend to sit a little forward and what if seems like is if you are a taller fellow you'll be in a much better position the further your seat is back away from the steering wheel.

It will be a long time till i get true seats in so I'll remember to check back in with some shots from the normal seating position and report back in.  Overall I give it a 9 out of 10.

@Patcon yes i think if you swapped out the glass it goes from a 9 to a true 10.  It looks to me like you can get the glass out by uncrimping the metal shell around it and then i assume the glass is glued to the back plate?  I won't be trying that any time soon becasue my luck the glass cracks, the ball breaks and I'm back to square 1.

 

[KenFirch]

Bummer, I just received the 96302 RH mirror from eBay, and it looks like it doesn't adjust inward as much as the new 96301 mirror I bought from Nissan last year!  Actually, if I were to mount the Nissan mirror on the right side, it can be adjusted a bit more more inward than the repo.

I may take the repo apart and figure out a modification to "adjust" it.