Timpanogos Slim
Go Kart Champion
- Location
- Hurtling up and down I15 in Utah
Last week i suddenly found that i was hurtling through traffic at great speed with no glass in the driver's side mirror.
Money is a little tight and OEM mirror glass is not cheap.
I went to an auto parts store and got the self-adhesive temporary mirror stuff - only a hair better than nothing - and then went to ebay and found these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&vxp=mtr&item=201000152269
aftermarket aspherical blind spot mirror glass. $50 + $5 ship for the pair. In clear for me, don't want the blue. Would look odd on a UG vehicle i think. They have the blue tint version too.
They showed up pretty quickly and i have them installed now.
The good:
Optics work as advertised.There is a little distortion from the curvature of the glass but it's true that you will see more with these than with the original glass. OE aspherical probably has the same distortion. A lot more. I want this on my truck now, but nobody makes it for my truck.
No "OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR" text.
Heating pads work just fine, just like OE.
The meh:
The 'clear' glass has a slight green cast to it. This means that there was a slight iron contaminant in the silica. It's really hard to purify silica sand, so many manufacturers add some selenium to decolorize the glass. But selenium in the quantities needed for industrial glassmaking is expensive. The reality is that the greenish tint doesn't bother me. You wouldn't notice without an OEM clear glass mirror right next to it. If you get the blue tint version, you probably won't notice at all. It means a hell of a lot more to me that i can now see cars in the side mirrors that are not visible by the mirror on the windshield or by turning my head. The asperhical optics are awesome.
I don't get why they put the vertical line on these. It's one piece of glass that has some compound curves. Must be so people know you have special mirrors. Whatever. I'm a function before form guy.
It's a little harder to get these to snap onto the mirror actuator than the original mirror glass. You have to line things up carefully and then press a bit harder. Different or heavier plastic used by the aftermarket guys probably.
The little metal tab on the back (you'll know what i mean when you mess with your mirror glass) needs to be bent inward slightly to work like the OE glass.
anyway, here's the backside, showing how close the mounting hardware is. Indistinguishable, but the tabs on the inside of the circle seem to be stiffer than OE, thus requiring more force. The dirty one of course is the original.
Money is a little tight and OEM mirror glass is not cheap.
I went to an auto parts store and got the self-adhesive temporary mirror stuff - only a hair better than nothing - and then went to ebay and found these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&vxp=mtr&item=201000152269
aftermarket aspherical blind spot mirror glass. $50 + $5 ship for the pair. In clear for me, don't want the blue. Would look odd on a UG vehicle i think. They have the blue tint version too.
They showed up pretty quickly and i have them installed now.
The good:
Optics work as advertised.There is a little distortion from the curvature of the glass but it's true that you will see more with these than with the original glass. OE aspherical probably has the same distortion. A lot more. I want this on my truck now, but nobody makes it for my truck.
No "OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR" text.
Heating pads work just fine, just like OE.
The meh:
The 'clear' glass has a slight green cast to it. This means that there was a slight iron contaminant in the silica. It's really hard to purify silica sand, so many manufacturers add some selenium to decolorize the glass. But selenium in the quantities needed for industrial glassmaking is expensive. The reality is that the greenish tint doesn't bother me. You wouldn't notice without an OEM clear glass mirror right next to it. If you get the blue tint version, you probably won't notice at all. It means a hell of a lot more to me that i can now see cars in the side mirrors that are not visible by the mirror on the windshield or by turning my head. The asperhical optics are awesome.
I don't get why they put the vertical line on these. It's one piece of glass that has some compound curves. Must be so people know you have special mirrors. Whatever. I'm a function before form guy.
It's a little harder to get these to snap onto the mirror actuator than the original mirror glass. You have to line things up carefully and then press a bit harder. Different or heavier plastic used by the aftermarket guys probably.
The little metal tab on the back (you'll know what i mean when you mess with your mirror glass) needs to be bent inward slightly to work like the OE glass.
anyway, here's the backside, showing how close the mounting hardware is. Indistinguishable, but the tabs on the inside of the circle seem to be stiffer than OE, thus requiring more force. The dirty one of course is the original.
