Large Durant mirror rebuild

[Grilleguy]

Hello All!
I’m in the process of restoring my ‘71 T and found a large Durant mirror locally that needs a new mirror glass because the silver has come off the inside.

I busted out the glass because it was already bad, so no loss. I found inside the mirror housing was just some sealant/glue to keep the lens from rattling.



There was more sealant in there, but it just scrapes off.

The black plastic retainer trim ring was next to come out. So I heated some water in the microwave and soaked the mirror face down in a container for about a minute. This softened the black ring up enough that it can be carefully popped out prying from the inner edge. The mirror housing has a crimp like the gauge bezels do, but when the black ring is softened, it will come out with a little persuasion.

The mirror glass is 4 3/4” in diameter and .115” thick. You could probably get away with 1/8” mirror glass.


You can see there is a small lip on the backside of the black plastic ring to center the glass. I’ll have a new piece cut locally and repolish the stainless before reassembly.

Hope this helps someone out that may be afraid of opening up their mirror.

Dan

[bru15]

Nice
pictures of after the glass was out and just the ring, prying would be nice....... have those?

Do a lot more pics when putting back together..... the devil is in the details.....

[BrentF]

Thanks for providing that measurement. I plan on replacing my glass as well in the near future. Now I can get the glass ahead of time.

BTW: What is the glass thickness?

[LiveFromNY]

Actual size is 120mm x 3mm.

[Grilleguy]

Nice
pictures of after the glass was out and just the ring, prying would be nice....... have those?

Do a lot more pics when putting back together..... the devil is in the details.....

Sorry, but I do not. I just used as big of a flat blade screw driver that I had, around 3/8” across the blade as I didn’t want the edge of the blade to dig into the black ring. I did use a mini (think eyeglass size) straight screwdriver to “pop” the outer edge out from behind the perimeter crimp. I then put the big straight screw driver about the same location but back against the stainless mirror back.

I think the trick is heating the plastic ring to make it soft, so you don’t have to worry about cracking it.

I did do my prying down at the edge closest to the mirror mount, that way if I did nick the stainless edge, it wouldn’t be easily seen. I didn’t, so it didn’t matter anyway. Just take you time and don’t get into gorilla mode, you’ll be fine.

[BrentF]

Actual size is 120mm x 3mm.

Thanks for the measurements.

I took mine apart tonight.

Dan (OP) asked about the glue/sealant on the inside of mirror. Turns out it's a round rubber gasket. (top right in photo)

Here's how I did it: I removed my glass from the outside, using a number of thin pointed non-serrated table knifes. Started by inserting tip of first knife blade between black ring and the lip on outer circumference of housing. Once I got the first blade in, I started to insert additional knife blades on either side of first blade. Once I had the fourth blade inserted, the black ring started to separate from the glass by about 1mm. Then I started to pry between the glass and the black ring, until the ring came free. Didn't heat up the mirror to do this.

[Scheebs]

I did this same rebuild many, many years ago. To source the new replacement glass I bought a reproduction and borrowed the glass from it to go back in the oem mirror. Easy peasy.