TheSamba.com :: View topic - Adding Passenger side-view mirror

Tue Oct 19, 2010 6:48 am

On a '72 Super Beetle, how do you go about adding a passenger side-view mirror? The '72 that I may be buying does not have one.

I have looked at a lot of picture of Super Beetles and most of them had passenger side-view mirrors. I guess that was an option huh?

Tue Oct 19, 2010 6:53 am

Is it just missing? I thought it was standard equipment. On my '70 it just screws in. So if its similar on the '72, its possible that its was just removed since its so easy to put on/take off and you can get a replacement.

Tue Oct 19, 2010 6:55 am

shortride wrote: I have looked at a lot of picture of Super Beetles and most of them had passenger side-view mirrors. I guess that was an option huh?
Actually mode do not have them and it was an option.

You need to drill a hole on the door post and mount a large nut inside to accept the mirror.

Tue Oct 19, 2010 7:54 am

I made a paper template from the driver's door after removing the driver's side mirror. Flipping the paper over, I was able to accurately find the location for the hole on the passenger side door. The location of the hole is critical because there is a steel reinforcement piece inside the door with the hole already in place, and your outer hole must be concentric with the inner hole.
Carefully match the drill diameter to the small "step" on the mirror mount; if you make the hole too big, it will deform the rubber seal when the mirror is tightened. The correct diameter is slightly smaller than that of the pre-punched hole for the mirror inside the passenger door behind the outer skin (which adds additional support to the mirror).
I found that the common Chinese 3 sided nut made for this purpose was a flimsy item, so I took the mirror mount to the hardware store and bought a metric nut and serrated washer to fit.
To position the nut, I used a foot long piece of 1/8" steel (like a yard stick) and soldered the end to one of the flats on the nut like this:

I was then able to position the nut behind the hole to start threading the mirror on. Once the nut is threaded onto the mirror mount, the solder joint is easily snapped off.
A crescent wrench can then be used to hold the nut while the mirror is reefed down tight.
The tension for adjusting the mirror angle is not established with the big nut. It is set with the 10mm nut which bears against the spring, so make the big nut tight.
Don't forget the rubber seal, and be careful of the paint as you tighten the outer mirror mount. You might consider buying a cheap open end wrench and grinding its thickness down to match that of the flats on the mirror mount.
My mirror came from WW; I think they're the best you can get these days.
Good luck, Mondshine

Tue Oct 19, 2010 1:11 pm

Thanks Mondshine,
I guess you normally would paint the feshly drilled hole?

Tue Oct 19, 2010 1:18 pm

mondshine wrote: I made a paper template from the driver's door after removing the driver's side mirror. Flipping the paper over, I was able to accurately find the location for the hole on the passenger side door. The location of the hole is critical because there is a steel reinforcement piece inside the door with the hole already in place, and your outer hole must be concentric with the inner hole.
Carefully match the drill diameter to the small "step" on the mirror mount; if you make the hole too big, it will deform the rubber seal when the mirror is tightened. The correct diameter is slightly smaller than that of the pre-punched hole for the mirror inside the passenger door behind the outer skin (which adds additional support to the mirror).
I found that the common Chinese 3 sided nut made for this purpose was a flimsy item, so I took the mirror mount to the hardware store and bought a metric nut and serrated washer to fit.
To position the nut, I used a foot long piece of 1/8" steel (like a yard stick) and soldered the end to one of the flats on the nut like this:

I was then able to position the nut behind the hole to start threading the mirror on. Once the nut is threaded onto the mirror mount, the solder joint is easily snapped off.
A crescent wrench can then be used to hold the nut while the mirror is reefed down tight.
The tension for adjusting the mirror angle is not established with the big nut. It is set with the 10mm nut which bears against the spring, so make the big nut tight.
Don't forget the rubber seal, and be careful of the paint as you tighten the outer mirror mount. You might consider buying a cheap open end wrench and grinding its thickness down to match that of the flats on the mirror mount.
My mirror came from WW; I think they're the best you can get these days.
Good luck, Mondshine

Excellent 8)

Wed Oct 20, 2010 12:00 pm

Take off your door panel and look inside where the passenger mirror would be mounted. I've seen later bugs that actually have the inner nut in place (from the factory) but no hole in the doorskin to mount the mirror on. If you have the nut factory installed, all you would have to do is measure carefully and drill through the outer door skin. It's worth a look, you might get lucky :wink:

Tue Mar 15, 2011 5:46 pm

mondshine wrote: I made a paper template from the driver's door after removing the driver's side mirror. Flipping the paper over, I was able to accurately find the location for the hole on the passenger side door. The location of the hole is critical because there is a steel reinforcement piece inside the door with the hole already in place, and your outer hole must be concentric with the inner hole.
Carefully match the drill diameter to the small "step" on the mirror mount; if you make the hole too big, it will deform the rubber seal when the mirror is tightened. The correct diameter is slightly smaller than that of the pre-punched hole for the mirror inside the passenger door behind the outer skin (which adds additional support to the mirror).
I found that the common Chinese 3 sided nut made for this purpose was a flimsy item, so I took the mirror mount to the hardware store and bought a metric nut and serrated washer to fit.
To position the nut, I used a foot long piece of 1/8" steel (like a yard stick) and soldered the end to one of the flats on the nut like this:

I was then able to position the nut behind the hole to start threading the mirror on. Once the nut is threaded onto the mirror mount, the solder joint is easily snapped off.
A crescent wrench can then be used to hold the nut while the mirror is reefed down tight.
The tension for adjusting the mirror angle is not established with the big nut. It is set with the 10mm nut which bears against the spring, so make the big nut tight.
Don't forget the rubber seal, and be careful of the paint as you tighten the outer mirror mount. You might consider buying a cheap open end wrench and grinding its thickness down to match that of the flats on the mirror mount.
My mirror came from WW; I think they're the best you can get these days.
Good luck, Mondshine

Can you tell me the thread size of that nut please.

I think it is 16mm, but I just tried the only 16mm nut my hardware store has and it didn't come close. (Nuts threads were to coarse)

Thanks in advance

Wed Mar 16, 2011 2:57 am

M16 may have a 2 or 1.5 pitch. (if it is a m16, which I don't know as fact)
http://www.carbidedepot.com/formulas-tap-metric.htm

Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:39 pm

jwold is right on target , simply order a ghia / convertible mounting plate and a right side beetle convertible mirror from one of the many VW parts suppliers .
DO NOT buy one of those cheap 'non' guaranteed mirrors { the mistake i made } it looked good , but it broke as soon as i tightened it down ,
having a right side mirror really makes driving a pleasure ,
i wouldn't drive a bug with out one !

Wed Nov 16, 2011 5:44 pm

Here's a pic of my OG convertible mirror with the ghia mount, and the extra little "object is closer than appears" mirror. Sorry for the blurryness, no flash and it was raining, but you get the idea.

The convertible mirrors and arm are slightly rounder shaped than the driver side...I didn't mind since it's just a driver.

Forget the big bolt idea...this took me about 1/2 hour to do this add on. You have to measure and drill 2 holes, and you don't have to tear your door apart to do it, and it looks pretty good, especially since it's OG VW as well.

I taped off the door first where I was going to drill the holes, the hardest part was making sure I was putting it in the correct location, i.e. level with the other side (oh and deciding to drill into the door of my car!).

I'm pretty sure that Wolfsburg West makes mirrors for both sides, at least they did when I was researching this project.

http://www.wolfsburgwest.com/cart/DetailsList.cfm?ID=113857514D

I was going to get theirs but found this mirror on CL first, picked up the mount (and the advice to do it this way) at Always VW here in PDX.

Here are a few more photos I found:

Sun Dec 04, 2011 8:24 am

I cant seem to find this mirror from a ghia or convertible- anyone have a link dont want to order wrong one thanx

Sun Jan 22, 2012 1:50 pm

ukbaja wrote:
Can you tell me the thread size of that nut please.

I think it is 16mm, but I just tried the only 16mm nut my hardware store has and it didn't come close. (Nuts threads were to coarse)

Thanks in advance

I'm just working on this installation this weekend on my '68 Beetle, so I thought I would update this thread. The nut size is M16 x 1.5

Sun Jan 22, 2012 11:23 pm

Hi,
if you want to have a more original look than in the previous post and you are redoing the scrapers on the door windows anyway, access is easy:

I did this a couple of weeks ago, drilled the hole, enlarged it so the mirror foot went through and used the nut without any difficulties.

The mirror installation looks the same like on the driver´s side then.
Alex

Mon Apr 30, 2012 2:43 pm

phmical wrote: jwold is right on target , simply order a ghia / convertible mounting plate and a right side beetle convertible mirror from one of the many VW parts suppliers .
DO NOT buy one of those cheap 'non' guaranteed mirrors { the mistake i made } it looked good , but it broke as soon as i tightened it down ,
having a right side mirror really makes driving a pleasure ,
i wouldn't drive a bug with out one ! Tried this today the threads are different any ideas

Mon Apr 30, 2012 4:33 pm

yea, Bug mirrors have different threads than the ghia mirror, you have a mismatch. you need a ghia mirror to go in that mount.

Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:27 pm

I did the same thing... Got the convertible mirror and the ghia adapter. The threads are sure close but not quite a fit. So Ghia Mirror?

Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:42 pm

Who has those nice curved back convertible mirror. My '79 had door mount mirrors at some point and some cheap "stock convertible" mirrors where installed. The bottom part that that adjusts the mirror forward/back isn't angled like the one in the pictures and as a result hits the aluminum trim strip. I will be replacing the inner and outer scrapers so I don't mind, but I want a better repop mirror to install after I do that.

Tue May 01, 2012 2:38 pm

roostermt wrote: I did the same thing... Got the convertible mirror and the ghia adapter. The threads are sure close but not quite a fit. So Ghia Mirror? What did you wind up doing!

Tue May 01, 2012 4:09 pm

I've done nothing yet... seems like everytime I go to start that project another on the bug gets priority.

My thoughts were to tap the adapter (car side) since the threads seem to be softer. Not sure if that will work.

Maybe have to break down and get a ghia mirror?