Side Mirror Refresh - 75 Bus

[BellePlaine]

The gray plastic border holding the glass in place in my side mirrors is cracked and falling away. I thought that it would be a nice spring-time project to clean them up and do something about that cracked plastic.



Does anyone know of a direct replacement for the gray cracked plastic? I'm tempted to mix up some JB Weld to use as caulking. The color and hardness would match. It's just too bad that I suck at caulking; you should see my downstairs shower! Any advice?

[Hippie]

If you end up going the epoxy route, the epoxy putty might work better, altough it is a dark gray unless you paint it.
You know...the stick you knead to mix that hardware stores have?

[Sylvester]

I just used velcro under mine to hold the mirror on, it was a suggestion on here years ago in case you needed to tighten up the mirror in the future. I used epoxy with the velcro strips, and it has been on the Bus for three years now, no plastic underneath. And if it needs to come off, I just peel it out.

[BellePlaine]

Interesting idea about the velcro, Sylvester. It sounds to me like the epoxy putty might be route that I'm looking to go. I hadn't ever heard of a 'putty' epoxy before.

[Hippie]

Ya, it comes in a clear plastic cylinder about a foot long..they'll know what you want. Handy stuff. Like modeling clay that sets up rock hard and can be sanded to shape and painted.

[sped372]

I have some epoxy putty that is just laying around... you can have it for the price of shipping. PM Sent.

[Sylvester]

Would the epoxy hold for sure on chrome and glass back? Seems awfully smooth to cling and could just fall out?

[static]

Epoxy holds the Bott's dots onto the pavement that you drive over every day.
It can probably hold onto an itty-bitty piece of glass.

[chitwnvw]

Plumbing putty.

[BellePlaine]

Thanks to sped372, for sending me his POR-15 epoxy putty. Sped, your payment in homebrew will be sent shortly. Some of the glass on my other mirror (not the one in the photo above) is more "window" then "mirror" so I guess I need to resilver the glass. This will be the first time I've done a project like this; it looks like a nasty/toxic job, but I'm going to go for anyway.

[Hippie]

I think an epoxy putty will likely hold it if you prep and clean properly, and press it into the chrome to glass gap to lock it in like the rubber bead used to do. When it cures you can try to see if it seems unstable before putting it on the car.

[Amskeptic]

I think an epoxy putty will likely hold it if you prep and clean properly, and press it into the chrome to glass gap to lock it in like the rubber bead used to do. When it cures you can try to see if it seems unstable before putting it on the car.

Remember the formula!

Vacuum = Closing Speed of Oncoming Truck/ Wind Shear
............ Surface Area of Mirror Glass X Barometric Pressure/Your Current Speed

[hambone]

Wolfsburg West is now making bus side mirror repros, wonder if they're any better than the HaggisTM brand? Crap from Germany who'da thot?

[sped372]

I bought one and the quality is pretty nice. Only had it a year or so now, though. I swapped the OE threaded portion over since the WW one was a few threads shorter.

[Amskeptic]

I bought one and the quality is pretty nice. Only had it a year or so now, though. I swapped the OE threaded portion over since the WW one was a few threads shorter.

Oh honestly . . . good grief. You are exactly the man to offer a speculative analysis of why this is.
Thanking You In Advance,
Colin