Civiclx

Well it is prett much notorious that the replica spoon mirrors have terrible visibility on the passenger side. When I got mine the glass was already installed on both sides and the passenger side was pointed straight at the ground. Needless to say I was used to having a mirror there so this sucked. I found a couple of threads saying to just break the mirror and loosen the base and have a new mirror cut. I didn't do this for a couple of reasons: (1) 7 years bad luck lol, (2) would have to get 2 new mirrors so the driver mirror would match, (3) didnt know where to get blue tinted mirrors, (4) the "objects in the mirror are closer than they appear" passenger side mirror projects images further back so you can see more and I wasnt sure a mirror shop would have this. Now. On to the pics. Use the tips if you want, or not .

I did this on my passenger side mirror


Step 1: Remove the mirror from the car (3 phillips screws inside the sail panel)

Step 2: Remove the mirror housing from the base (3 phillips screws on the inside of the base)



Step 3: Heat up the housing by blowing air through the screw holes that hold it to the base and through the front of the mirror using a blow dryer or a heat gun, this will loosen up the adhesive.

Step 4: Use an old credit card or club card (I used my Albertson's preferred card) of some sort (that you don't care if it gets messed up - the side mirrors are sharp and will tear the card up) and gently pry away the old mirror making sure that the mirror is constantly warm so the adhesive is still pliable. Take your time so the mirror wont break. (I used floss at first in rememberance of my old days as a ricer taking off my stock emblems to put on colored once, don't act like you didn't do that ish too)





Step 5: Now that you have the mirror off, seperate the adhesive base from the mounting base by prying off the four sets of two teeth that hold them on each other



Step 6: Unscrew the 3 tiny phillips screws that hold on the mirror pivoting base and take it out



Step 7: Loosen the screw on top of the spring enough for it to move freely yet tight enough to support the mirror glass

Step 8: Put the pivoting mount back in (3 phillips screws)

Step 9: Put the adhesive mount back on the pivoting mount (4 snaps)

Step 10: Attach mirror housing to mirror base (3 phillips screws)

Step 11: Cover the mount with saran wrap as well as the back of the mirror so you can test fit it without them sticking to each other

Step 12: Mount the mirror housing and base on the car

Step 13: Rotate the pivoting base and adhesive to your liking

Step 14: Take scotch tape or any other tape that will support the mirror glass and tape it into the housing resting saran wrap against saran wrap (make sure the mirror doesnt fall)

Step 15: Sit in the driver seat and adjust it to your liking, once you have it adjusted, take off the saran wrap from both items (adhesive mount and back of mirror which as double sided tape on it) and mount the mirror on there.

Step 16: Take off the whole mirror assembly and heat it up to make the adhesive cure to each other again, or leave it out in the sun!

Step 17: Enjoy full visibility!

I know there seems like a lot of redundant steps but this is exactly what I did and it cost me nothing. I know there are gonna be haters that are going to say why didn't you spend the money and just get real spoon mirrors so you wouldn't have to do all that work. To that I say, I used the extra 300 bucks I saved (I only spent 25 bucks on these mirrors), to buy an intercooler, turbo timer, and exhaust for my upcoming turbo set up. Cheers

JDMhatchback20

Nice DIY

Civiclx

thanks man, i hope people will use this to their advantage

Smokinsax

great write up man

ProEater

ive never used spoon mirrors, how bad is the visibility?

Civiclx

it was very very bad, you could adjust them side to side but not up and down

Nader_D

damn if i get my spoom mirrors i might jstu do that....but i probably wont cause i know ill screw something up for rizzle

good DIY though!

B_CRUZ!

there is an O.G. post by the man himself that I copied onto my notepad.....
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Thunderlipps &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">After owning these $80 gems for quite some time, the annoyance of zero adjustability and an almost useless passenger side mirror, I decided to try something out...


Now, this works much better prior to install, and if this is being done afterwards, I cannot gurantee a perfect operating mirror.

I'm going to outline this in steps as if you have not yet installed the lens...So let's go from there...

1. Trace the lens on a piece of paper, so it can be used at a later date. (We'll get to why later)


2. You are going to have to remove the piece of plastic that mounts directly to the mirror. It snaps out of place in four mounting points. (I did this after mounting the lens, and ended up breaking the glass)


2a. Broken glass.


3. Now, look inside the actual mirror itself, you'll see three screws inside...Remove them.


4. Firmly pull out that little unit you just unscrewed.


5. See that big shiny screw and spring? You are going to need to loosen the screw very slightly, and rotate the piece until you feel it's firm enough to support the mirror, but loose enough to adjust the mirror. While you're at it, I'd suggest some grease to keep it smooth.


6. Everything is pretty much done here.

Final steps: Reassemble everything in reverse order, and if you haven't mounted the glass yet, don't. Take that trace you made of the lens and photocopy it. Try to reduce the image very slightly, just so the lens is now covering the circle where the lens mounts. This should solve the other problem of the lens being too small for the housing...Now, with the smoother moving joint and the smaller lens, you have yourself a perfectly operating mirror.

Now, to all the people that talk smack on these mirrors...Let's say you just bought the knock off's, that go for around $80 bucks now. Then go and spend around $10 bucks getting new lenses cut and a few minutes loosening the bolts...You still have around $200 bucks left over to spend on whatever. (instead of buying the $300+ Vision/Spoon versions) </TD></TR></TABLE>

Civiclx

woo that writeup is awesome too, except i didnt have to break teh mirror

TRE_

dope write up... i'm installing my mirrors later this week so this should come in handy.

jdmintegra1994

very nice write up. I'll definitely do this when i have some free time.

hasback*

godammit. i have the powered ones. i can seee perfect with the driver side but i cant see **** with the passanger side. can i do this with a powered one??

Civiclx

to my knowledge no one has actually taken the insides out of the powered ones yet, but it wouldnt hurt to be the first one with powers to do this, just heat that mirror up and peel away slowly to see what kinda stuff is under there, im assuming it will be similar

yakitori

the real spoon mirrors sucks for visiblility (yes I have them) since it's made for rhd car the passenger US side mirror wont adj twords the car as much as you'd like........I'd just buy these and do what he di

Civiclx

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by yakitori &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the real spoon mirrors sucks for visiblility (yes I have them) since it's made for rhd car the passenger US side mirror wont adj twords the car as much as you'd like........I'd just buy these and do what he di </TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah thats what i heard, so basically you are paying for weather stripping around the lenses

Infinity_Racer

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hasback_00 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">godammit. i have the powered ones. i can seee perfect with the driver side but i cant see **** with the passanger side. can i do this with a powered one??</TD></TR></TABLE>

the powered ones are completely different...when i opened mine up, the motors were just screwed on to the housing...what i did to both sides was wedge a piece of washer in there to angled it towards me...that wasnt enough so i took the mirror off of the base and angled it too using bondo and some folded cardboard... sorry i dont have pics as i sold the car 2 weeks ago, but visibility was great...

let me know if you have any more questions

Civiclx

yeah post up pics so we can make this a fake *** spoon mirror faq

woccowocco

i got the power ones...i just sanded down the edges of my passenger side mirror a quarter inch all around and now they move freely and i see clearly out of them.

Coldth1

any way u can get the pics working