Rear View Mirror

For some time now I've been very unhappy about the field of view from my left front fender mirror. John at JPS in North Hollywodd has manufactured a piece of glass that I've mounted directly over the existing mirror for a much better idea of what is going on behind my left shoulder.

John, I don't know about the others, but I never placed much faith in the mirror for checking for any vehicle that is relatively close, at least when I am looking for someone that might pass on the left. I always do a head check as if I were riding a motorcycle, since it is so easy. My mirror is pretty much for looks, except for vehicles that are quite a distance behind, IMHO. The mirror is a help, but not a major one. If it weren't against the law, I would remove the pimple entirely. But, then again, I haven't had the car on the road since last year due to the weather, so I'll check it out later this month. I may rethink my position.

It has been raining up here off and on in Santa Rosa, CA for the past couple of weeks. Got down to 27 degrees last night and we even got some corn snow yesterday (I can hear the owners in the colder climes snickering). It rarely snows here, and when it does, it makes the front page of the local fishwrapper.

Barry

Took a special piece of glass to realize that your wife is coming ??

I would be very interested in that. I use that mirror all of the time. Over my shoulder check for anything in traffic ala motorbike, but when you're just cruising down the freeway, its nice to just keep an eye on who might be joining you (like police officers...).

angela

There are two things on my mind relating to this mirror business. One, the piece of glass I received from JPS has a grey smokey look to it and is not as bright and clear as the center mounted rear view mirror. When ordering one today I would ask for clear bright glass, I don't like the grey. The second item, whenever I use a mirror that is not perfectly flat after looking straight ahead, my experience has shown me that my eyes have to recalibrate to be able to focus properly. With the old mirror that was not the case, but like you Angela I use that outside mirror all the time and found the old one to be lacking, I'll put up with the re-focusing problem for a wider view.

I have bilateral mirrors that were pretty much useless until I put a fisheye type mirror on both of them. The circumference of the fisheye is almost identical to the mirror circumference so it isn't very noticeable. I know some owners wouldn't want to use something that looks like it belongs on an 18-wheeler, but Spydie is my daily driver, so I use the mirrors all the time. They really work great. v v

Vicki, can you describe that a little better. I would like to pick something up like that around here. Did you have to cut that down. i want the widest view possible. Karl, does you view look fish-eye-ee? I know there is some tradeoff with looking farther down the road the wider you go.

At the risk of sounding like a redneck, I'll tell you about my fisheye mirrors. I went to O'Reilly's or AutoZone or something like that--can't remember now--and bought stick-on fisheye mirrors. I think they're plastic but they "view" just like glass. There is adhesive on the back and, after 2 1/2 years, they're still stuck like. . .well, really good sticky stuff. The size I got is about 1/8 to 1/4 inch smaller than the real mirror itself so it doesn't show up that much. I know there are a lot of groans out there hearing me tell about this, but I have to be able to see, and this absolutely does it. v

Thank you, I assumed it was about exactly how it sounded. I didn't realize that you could buy something over the counter that was the same size. i thought i would have to cut something. i also thought that i could use one of the really small ones that fit in the corner of a rgular mirror but that it would be so small that it wouldn't be worth it. thanks again. i'll give it a shot.
by the way, does your rear view mirror (center mirror)get loose and if so how does one tighten up the ball joint???

My center rear view mirror is a tad bit loose, but I haven't tightened it so I don't know how. Both side mirrors got really loose and I figured out how to tighten those. v

"by the way, does your rear view mirror (center mirror)get loose and if so how does one tighten up the ball joint???"

You have to carefully remove the glass, which is held on by two pieces of double sided sticky foam. Once you do that, you'll see the nut that tightens the "ball". Either replace the foam, or use some epoxy to put it back together. It is a very easy fix.

Carey

Thanks Carey. I'll get to it as soon as it warms up in my garage.

If you have any problems, don't hesitate to call.
Carey