Side View Mirror Repair

[dmason]

A "friend I haven't met yet" side swiped my driver side mirror while coach was in storage and pulled the bottom two screws out of the coach body. The mirror is a Velvac model "Revolution". I think I can epoxy the screws back into the body thru the base plate but not sure how the face place comes off so I can get access to the screws. From the owner's manual it looks like the face plate is held on by a mounting screw thru the bottom of the face plate. The mounting instructions say to "slide down the face plate on to the bracket as far as possible with slight pressure. I assure to remove the face plate just reverse the instructions and loosen the mounting screw and slide the face plate up. It looks pretty easy per the picture, but pictures can be deceiving. Any one ever tackle this type of repair before? Thanks.

[adj]

Give it a try. If the mounting wasn't damaged, you should OK.

[MickBrennan]

Both front mirrors on our (used) coach had been damaged. Of course this wasn't evident until they began to loosen. Upon inspection I discovered that the reason for that problem was because the bolts had rusted and obviously been stripped. One mirror is a replacement.

I asked about 50 people at hardware stores, machine shops and dealers about the repair. General opinion was that in order to replace the stripped bolts inside the front fiberglass cap there would be much dismantling and recaulking and all the expense that goes along with that.

Three people suggested industrial, high strength plastic inserts. They all agreed that the plastic would not be as brittle and give the big heavy mirrors a little (miniscule) flex to help absorb the inertial forces that caused them to loosen in the first place.

They are readily available at the local hardware store. Turns out that those drywall anchors are made of some very tough stuff. Wack 'em in and screw down with stainless wood screws. Cost, about $5. They have been there for over a year and thousands of miles with no problems.

Okay, let's hear it!

[dmason]

Thanks for the recommendations. Decided to take entire mirror off coach before it fell out. It was being held on by one screw. Disconnecting electric was easy and once off the coach found my diagram didn't match what was installed. Got mirror disassemled and found screw holes in coach required next larger size screw (went from #16 to 1/4 and from a 2 inch to a 2 and 1/2 inch). Reattached base plate and mirror with help of Ms. Definately not a two person job. For self protection bought two orange five gallon pails for Home Depot and two plastic reflectors. Remove bucket handles, inserted reflectors thru holes and fit over each mirror with reflectors sticking out 12 inches on each side of mirror. Bungeed the entire contracption to the mirror. Looks like H--L, but maybe it'll keep my "friends I haven't met yet" away. Only time will tell.