Last night I worked on the Maverick again (looks like it's a Maverick week, lol). I installed the passenger sport mirror, replaced the door handle with a new one, and started in on the drivers mirror. I had to go down to my parents place to get a large drill bit, ended up visiting a while with them, so I didn't finish. Hopefully tonight I'll get back at it.
Question... I mounted the mirror utilizing the back mounting hole (from the original drivers side mirror) and drilled a hole "forward" for the front hole. The reason is because my other '76 factory sport mirrors (on the white car) seem to be back too far, making it an effort to utilize them. Anyway, this will put the mirrors a little bit more towards the front of the door. My question is, do you think I can push my control cables "back" a bit and use the large hole already in the door, or should I drill another large hole near the front mounting hole (see last pic above). I hate to drill "another hole", but I will if I need to. Has anyone run into this? Art
I don't see a problem with it as long as the control cables don't bind, interfer with the window, or the mirror pedestal won't mount flat. Try it and see what happens I'm sure others would love to have the information.
What I noticed right off the bat is, "normally" the hole is near the front of the base, which "points" the control cables towards the front of the door. I checked last night and the cables will route without binding to the current hole which is near the back, but the cables are then directed towards the back of the door. Now, I'm not exactly sure how or where to position the cables "inside" the door, but my concern is that maybe the cables will end up being too short if they are pointing in the wrong direction? I'm not sure how much slack there is since I've never mounted these before. Again, I would love "not" to have to drill a second large hole in the door, I just wish I had more info so I would know what's ahead. If anyone has mounted these before, how much extra "slack" do I have to play with in regards to the cable length? What do I have to look out for in routing the cables in the door? Thanks all! Art
I would drill another large hole. You need to route the cables behind the front widow track so that you can roll the window up and down.
Install follow-up... Good news, I did not have to drill out the larger hole in the door! I premounted the mirror and utilized the hole that was already there (which is located more to the back of the mirror). However, I did have to drill a new hole in the plastic gasket for the control cables to flow through. I played with the control cable and there was plenty of length to route it, and it works just fine! After I finished installing the interior remote control, I closed the door to see how the mirror location "feels". It's really nice where it's at, I like it much better than the factory "mid-door" location that's on my white Maverick. It just seems to be in a more natural location. I would say it's between 2 to 4 inches forward (I didn't measure the difference last night), but again, I utilized the "rear" factory mounting hole from the chrome mirror and drilled a new front mounting hole.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who does not like the mirror location of the '76s, I assume the rest are the same??? Also thanks for getting to this before me, now when I mount mine I wont bat an eye, just move them forward. Lou
Where did you get the threaded bushings that go in the door to hold the screws? I have not had much luck finding a source locally.
On the drivers side, I utilized the back one that was already there. All other mounting was done using stainless steel stove bolts with washers and lock nuts. I had to remove the door panels to do it this way, which is more work, but it's quite effective. Art
