Door mirrors

[Ian Anderson]

Ok here goes for the SVA specifications

Obligatory mirrors are One Interior and one offside exterior mirror, however if the interior rear field of view does not meet requirements then an exterior mirror must be fitted on the nearside too. (They cannot be insecure or vibrate enough to cause the driver to misinterpret the image)

All mirrors must be E or e marked

Any surface contactable by a sphere 165mm diameter for interior or 100mm diameter exterior must have radius of curvature not less than 2.5mm

Exterior mirrors must be capable of rotating inwards towards the vehicle when a force of 10kg is applied horizontally to an extreme outer edge, from both front and rear.
The said axis of rotation is to be within 50mm of the vehicle surface to which they are mounted.

Exterior mirror area must accommodate a rectangle of 40mm high by 70mm length

Interior mirror must be adjustable from the normal seating position

The drivers side exterior mirror must be adjustable from inside the vehicle, with the door closed (the window may be open). If the mirror is knocked out of alignment it must be capable of being returned to it’s former position without the need of adjustment
Note in this section it does not stipulate that the passenger mirror must be internally adjustable but it appears to catch this in the next section.

With the vehicle positioned appropriately and the drivers seat in it’s rearmost position the field of view is tested and each mirror may be adjusted from within the vehicle

There are then various diagrams showing what must be visible, however to scan and show these would infringe Crown copyright.

So hopefully all is now clear!

Ian

[Brett James-McCall]

There was set on eBay the other week going for £170

Have you also maybe considered one of these?

[Brett James-McCall]

which is a BMW M Coupe mirror, NOT a Mini. If you notice theere is a slightly more 'muscular' point at the front to use a nice motor buzz word. Here's another view.

[David York]

Fantastic.

Thanks for the clarification on the mirror SVA issue.

[briany]

Paul, A perennial topic I fear - fitting electric mirrors to a GT40 - in my case a CAV. I have acquired a pair of BMW Mini mirrors and have figured out the wiring and plan to use them with the Ford Mondeo switch thingy. My question though concerns how you have mounted the mirrors to the car. They are quite big and heavy plus the mount is clearly designed to project through the door panel and to mount to something fitted inside the car. Did you modify the mount to make it flush with the door and mount the mirror to the door panel or cut what is quite a large hole and fabricate something to mount the mirror to inside the door? My concern with the first route is the mirror is quite heavy and might cause quite a bit of flexing of the door outer skin.

Brian Yeomans

[Brett James-McCall]

Brian,
Speak to Roy Smart. He has Mini mirrors on his GTD.

Brett

[Bud]

for a small compact morror with good visabity a friend of mine used the mirrors off of a ducati, and he said they work well
Bud

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

Hi Brian

Re the mirrors on Roy's GTD - we cut a hole in the door large enough for the mirror's cabling/protrusion to fit through and fibreglassed a suitable metal support inside to bolt it to.

To enable the mirror to fit the curve of the door, the rubber gasket between mirror base and door was removed and the mirror mount (Plastic) carefully trimmed with a sharp knife to match (ish) the profile of the door. Rubber seal was refitted to give a tidy finish. Be careful with the trimming as you need to retain the correct angle for viewing and obviously need to get both sides similiar. Make sure you sit in the car whilst someone holds the mirror to the door and then get them in the car and you hold the mirror to the door. This better enables you to visualize exactly where the mirror needs to be fitted.

Finally, do the above with the car on its wheels on the ground, with the rear deck on!, else you may not be able to correctly evaluate exactly what can and cannot be seen in the mirrors. Plus - remember they only adjust 'so far', so ensure you are not at the limit of adjustment when you test. You might want to allow for other drivers of different height (seat position?) to drive so allow for that too - after all, if they are electrically adjustable they should be 'usefully adjustable' - hope this helps...

If you get stuck, I can photograph the inside of Roys door next time I'm over there.

[John W]

Bud, interesting idea.
I'll take a picture of the mirrors on my 998 and ST4S if anyone wants to see what they look like.

To be honest I would think the 998 mirrors would be too small, and aren't that good to use on a bike so wouldn't expect them to be very good on a car. They are fixed too so would not comply with the folding requirement. The ST4S mirrors don't fold as such, but are sprung mounted.

Any ideas which model of bike your friends mirrors came off of ??

Cheers,
John.

[David York]

HI Paul,
I would like those pictures of the inside mountings of Roys mirrors.


Also if anyone has pictures of the gubbins insdie the electric mirrors I would like to see that to see if it can be retrofitted to other mirrors.


TTFN

[Jim Dewar]

Hi Dave, I purchased new Mini mirrors on ebay for $90 each. I wired a saab 900(96) switch which required no modifications (relays). I hope these photos help.

[Jim Dewar]

2

[Jim Dewar]

3

[Dan Weilacher]

Wow thats a intricate hole you had to cut Jim, good job .Nice mirrors [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif[/img]

[JCoop]

I just got a pair of Vitaloni Sebrings in Chrome on EBay for $120.

[JCoop]

another shot, closer...

[Canuk40]

Ray,

They look great

[Yuji]

Ray,
This is exactly same mirrors I bought few week ago at one of the shops in Tokyo w/ bit more $$$. Havn't fitted yet to my GTD. Even minor degradation on visibility compare to other mirrors, I'd prefer this design. Good choice!

[JCoop]

Yuji. when you fit the passenger side mirror, (I guess that's the left side for you over there), cheat a little bit and cock it about 2mm towards the driver. You wil hardly notice the difference; or maybe do it to both. My install works fine but I could have used another 1/4" adjustment to the passenger side. Right now, I see the critical blind spot perfectly but don't see the rear fender at all.

Good luck!

[candc]

the uk spec daewoo matiz uses door mirrors that may be of use for people building a gt40 avaliable in electric and cable adjustment