Light Truck / Doka Mirror upgrade

[SSWesty]

Hi, documenting my upgrade to Light Truck / Doka mirrors. My 89 Westy came with electric mirrors however they didn’t work for whatever reason. However I am 6’1” so I always left the driver side mirror tipped up as high as it would go and the passenger mirror never needed moving. So even though I couldn’t adjust them with the electric switch it didn’t matter to me. Even with the driver’s side mirror tipped up I always had to look down to get a good view out of the mirror. There is a Bentley modification where something within the mirror housing can be shaved to allow the mirror to be tipped up higher. I never did this mod so I don’t know if that would have helped me from needed to look down so much to see out of the mirror. On some trips I tow a boat or motorcycles on a trailer. The stock electric mirrors have been okay however the light truck / doka mirrors always seemed like a better solution for me. Van-Cafe put the truck mirrors on special a while back so I finally pulled the trigger and picked up a set.

I first notice they didn’t come with any mounting screws. I guess makes sense if you were buying these as replacement mirrors. I was able to reuse the screws from the original mirrors however I needed to come up with something for the upper mount. After thinking about the options I decided to go with McMaster-Carr Nut Inserts. In the Seattle area I only found them at the Renton McLendons and went with aluminum in the 10-24 thread size. To see specs go http://www.mcmaster.com/#threaded-inserts/=cesz8k then Rivet Nut category then Nut Inserts. This is more mounting talk in this thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=428982

As I was getting ready to mount the mirrors I noticed the upper mount doesn't line up with the door frame so they give you a plastic spacer to fill the gap. It appears as if the design of the upper mount was off by 15 degrees. Rather than redoing the casting for the mount it seems the manufacture decided the throw in a plastic wedge to make it work. So I decided to experiment with the passenger side and bend the tubular frame so the upper mount would line up with the door frame. I did get it aligned up better without the plastic wedge and they seemed to fold okay. However the folding alignment was not great so I decided to mount them with the wedge. A little more bending and they were back to shape so I could use the plastic wedge. One oversight I had was not matching the bend of the passenger side to the untouched driver’s side. So I ended up with the upper mount on the passenger side being about 1.25" lower than the driver’s side. Seems the only issue is a hit to my pride as the mirror seems to work and fold fine.

I’ve never used Nut Inserts before however they were pretty easy to work with. I’d line up where I wanted to drill, mark it with a punch and drill. You can buy a “tool/kit” to insert the nuts however it's nothing more than a coupling nut, 1.25" long allen head screw and allen wrench. I just bought the coupling nut and allen head screw separately for half the price of the "tool/kit". To prevent rust I applied a coat of silicone as bedding for the nuts.

After getting the mirrors adjusted it is now really nice to be able to see back by looking with my eyes and not needed to tip my head down to see in the driver’s mirror. Also it seems that the mirrors have a slight curve to the glass so you see more than with the original flat driver’s side. The original passenger side mirror was convex and would reduce the amount of detail you could see. The new mirrors are great for giving you more detail. You can get much better clarity if you are going to back into something you shouldn’t or if the trailer tire is going to run over something it shouldn’t. Another feature with these mirrors is you can flip the mirrors to extend out another 4” if you are towing something wider or really narrow. So far I haven’t needed to flip them out but I am glad I have the option. It’s probably a 5 minute job to flip them. In town and on the freeway I don’t notice any new wind noise or vibrations.

Victory...they are mounted!

Nut Inserts installed

Plastic Wedge, I will probably use a sheet metal screw for the third hole in the upper mount. At the moment they seem solid with two screws.

Comparison, the mirror in the original is about the same width. The camera makes it look bigger than it is.

Drivers side view, you can even see the back tire

[vweggie]

Very nice!
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1990 Multivan 2.1 AT

[JED THE SPREAD]

The reason for the plastic packer is that the part numbers for just the fixing brackets are the same as the LT I believe. Is that a panasonic TZ10 taking the pictures?

jed
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[syncrodoka]

LT doesn't stand for light truck, it is a actual vehicle name. It is short for Lasten-Transporter

LT 31 westy-