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Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:19 am

Couple of questions:
First: The mesh / screen behind the radio speaker grill on zwitters - 57's,. What finish / color? By the time I see them they are rusty or black however I have seen pictures where they appear to be silver or zinc plated? Is it just galvanized screen?

Second: Trying to restore my rear view mirror on my zwitter. I would like re-chrome & re-silver the mirror. Has anyone done this and if so what is the procedure?

Danke!

Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:51 am

Bill,
I do not know the answer for the first question ,but would like to know as well.

Here is some information about mirror restoration from the oval forums.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=318347&highlight=mirror+restore

It is for a vert mirror but interesting food for thought however.

The removal of the mirror is tedious work.
The removal of the roll pins that hold the arm to the base are a bus load of fun to extract as well. Good luck .

Ted

Sun Mar 14, 2010 1:27 pm

The screen is grey in color. Similar to your typical window screen.
Dave

Sun Mar 14, 2010 3:17 pm

ZwitterND wrote: Trying to restore my rear view mirror on my zwitter. I would like re-chrome & re-silver the mirror. Has anyone done this and if so what is the procedure?

Rather than re-Silver the glass, it's much more economical to have a new piece of glass cut to size & installed. Much simpler too. Just put tape over the old glass. Insert mirror head into a small bag. Take & hammer and destroy the glass.
Now you can straighten the edge of the mirror housing. Cut and install a new glass. Conform the edge of the housing around the glass by rubbing along a wooden block.

Sun Mar 14, 2010 5:13 pm

Well I read Gary's notes and got the mirror out. I took a razor blade rounded & bevel the corners , then sat down in front of the TV and slowly went around prying the aluminum back which by the way bends very easily. The corners were the most difficult. This is the mirror from my zwitter. No roll pins like on a 57 thank God. I sandwiched the visor between two pieces of pine in a vice then used a drift punch to knock the rod out. The mount is held in place by two screws. Now I have glass for a pattern and the frame is off to get plated.

The left side looksworse than it is, it will clean up fairly easy.

Sun Mar 14, 2010 6:46 pm

Rumor has it from an old VW mechanic I know that the screens were actually "flocked" originally..anyone ever seen a NOS one or have a pic of one with flocking?

Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:26 pm

The one that I put in my zwitter was in perfect condition (rust wise). I don't really recall if it was fuzzy or not but it wasn't really a smooth finish.

Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:37 pm

Flocked? How did they flock it? ...that sounds bad, but seriously how?

Mon Mar 15, 2010 6:56 am

http://www.craftflocking.com/

I don't know about oval era cars but I do knot that the screes were flocked in the 60's.

Mon Mar 15, 2010 9:55 am

Yustrn wrote: Rumor has it from an old VW mechanic I know that the screens were actually "flocked" originally..anyone ever seen a NOS one or have a pic of one with flocking?

i don't think he said "flocked", he said i word my mommy told me never to repeat. :lol:

also, correct me if i'm wrong, won't you get 7 years of bad luck if you break the mirror?

i just checked my '57 og screen which is still in the car. it has surface rust, but it looks like it was black at one time. no evidence of flocking.

Tue Mar 16, 2010 6:24 pm

This is odd, I looked in the parts book, I wonder if this means there different colors available?

Tue Mar 16, 2010 8:44 pm

looks digital all those 11111111`s ;)