Side view mirror dilemma

1hot87gt

5 Year Member
Mar 17, 2017
416
330
93
New York
Hey. Hoping someone can help me. My 87 GT needed side view mirrors. The passenger side wouldn’t move any more, motor work but something must’ve been stripped, and the driver side moved but made a lot of noise. I had to pull door panels to do window motors so figured it was a good time to do side views at the same time. Ordered a set from NPD which i think must be manufactured by Daniel Carpenter Resto parts because that’s the tag on the box they came in. Had the shop do the work today as I couldn’t seem to get to it and wanted it done before winter. I guess it’s my fault for not looking at the mirrors closely enough, they definitely need to be painted, but also the mirror does not look as good as factory. Very distorted. Overall I’m disgusted because the mirrors don’t look or perform as well as the originals I took off. I feel I wasted my money. And this is not the first time an aftermarket part has not been what it was described as. I bought a set of window switches from LMR. They didn’t have the same look, shape, or feel as the originals I took out. They were great and gave me a full refund. The aftermarket has so much Resto parts available for our cars. And that’s great, but the quality, appearance, figment, etc, doesn’t seem to be there. Does anybody know of anyone out there who sells a product closer to factory on these? Or could they be repaired or overhauled, freshened up, etc? I’m really down over this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
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When I did mirrors on my car (due to the motors failing) I ended up just pulling the glass/motors out of the aftermarket mirrors and installing them in my housings. Was a direct swap.

The aftermarket housings just didn’t look right to me. The new motors work well. Perfectly silent.


National parts depot sells what they call an “exact reproduction”. Not sure if that would be closer to what you are looking for
 
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Honestly, what’s stopping me from doing that is that the mirrors in the replacements are so bad. Looks distorted. Not safe.

If I recall, I was able to swap those too. I believe they are plastic welded in? I decoupled them, drilled a small pilot hole and used some 4-40 bolts to secure the original glass.


Really all I wanted was the motors. I reused The housing and mirror glass from my originals.
 
Hmm. Well I ordered a set off eBay. Made by a different company. The ones from NPD are Daniel Carpenters and they are on their way back. If the eBay ones have good glass, I’m gonna try what you suggest. If they look decent, maybe I’ll mount them the way they are, but I’m not counting on that.

Just upset. Tried to do something good for the car, and it backfired on me badly. Hate when that happens.
 
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