Door mirrors

[dazzpowder]

Whats the story with the RH drive cars and the passengers side mirror? I've looked at some cars and they appear to be missing yet others have them and one car I was thinking of taking a look at this weekend has none.

I see from a search that the offside is NLA, but if they could be found how do they attach to the doors? I'm never keen on drilling in to bodywork for screw mounts.

[gnj588d]

My car is RHD and had no door mirrors when I baught it 12yrs ago I think they were an option? I had a drivers side fitted when I first baught the car. I fitted the passenger side today after spotting one on ebay. You need to drill two holes in the door make sure they are in the exact location,use the plastic base plate as a template.Mine is the early  swan neck type

[Richard Madison]

Should make a base plate from aluminum to fit inside the door under the mirror. Drill two holes through the plate.

The two bolt posts go through the rubber base then through the door skin then through the inside base plate. The two nuts go on to the posts from below the base plate to hold it all together.

A good hit can rip the mirror off the door if there is no base plate.

Richard M, NYC

[dazzpowder]

I guess this is something else to look at in a potential purchase, too make sure the mirrors are the same and correctly located and secured.

[Eryck]

My 1965 230SL is a Hong Kong registered car and it came with no side mirrors.  I think side mirrors were an option back in those days.  Another HK Pagoda that I know here also came without side mirrors. 

Anyway, one of the previous owners installed a 280SL style mirror on the driver's side.  I bought a right hand swan neck mirror, tried to install it but got stuck.  The 280SL mirror has a larger base and in order to fit the swan neck mirror, I need to patch up a hole otherwise, it will be visible.  No idea how to patch up the hole yet...and my garage hasn't any suggestions neither....

[franjo_66]

Like Eryck, my 1965 230SL was Australian delivered with no side mirrors. The previous owner added the latter style 280SL mirrors. When the car went in for a full frame-off restoration, I couldn't bring myself to redrill the original door panels so that I could retrofit the correct gose-neck mirrors. So I left them as is. It seemed the easier option, given the fact that to properly refill the holes requires a bit of metal work. Otherwise you could try to get good used door skins. I preferred to keep my original panels !