[MR2] MkII Rear View Mirror Help

[James]

Thanks Ken, yeah - strangest thing...I'm assuming that either those screws
stretched over the last seventeen years, or the aluminum mirror body
yielded.  Those screws go through the mirror body and then into the steel
hinge assembly.  I noticed that when I'd wobble the mirror, the mirror body
would move, but not the screws.  And that must've been REALLY good loc-tite,
because I couldn't budge the screws no matter how hard I tried - even after
I'd drilled out the screw heads, taken the mirror apart, and tried to twist
the screw shank with vise grips.  I'm afraid I kind of made a mess of things
while trying.

Also, for the mirror pedestal, one or more of the car's previous owners had
replaced some of the screws that go through the door panel into the mirror
with some sheet metal screws, which they'd forced into the threaded holes.

I got so fed up with the mirrors after all the time I spent with them - I
found out that new mirrors already painted in the right color are still
available, and not TOO terribly expensive.  I got them for $203.71 each.

Oh, you were one of the guys acknowledged in that book, "Toyota MR2
Performance" - very cool.  Kris Osheim too.

James


On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 12:26 PM, Ken Blake <kblake at royalmoore.com> wrote:

> Hi James,
>        It's usually the screws on the outside of the car, on the underside
> of the mirror that are at fault. Unfortunately,
> they are a soft metal, and Toyota installed them using Loc-Tite. I have
> helped several of the local owners fix their shaky
> mirrors, after repairing my own, using SS button-head Allen screws. The
> screws were so tight on one of the cars, we used a
> dremel with a cut-off wheel to make a slot across the head of the screw,
> then used a large slotted screwdriver to remove the
> screw. IMS, the screws are either 4mm or 5mm thread.
>
> HTH,
>
> Ken
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mr2-bounces at mr2.com [mailto:mr2-bounces at mr2.com] On Behalf Of James
> Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 10:54 PM
> To: mr2 at mr2.com
> Subject: [MR2] MkII Rear View Mirror Help
>
> While I've my MkII interior stripped for reupholstering and running wires
> for some new electronics, with the door panels off,
> I figured it would be a good time for taking care of my wobbly rear view
> mirrors - which I found annoying.  One of the MR2
> sites even had a tip on how to fix this problem...even though it wasn't
> very helpful.  These mirrors are of the
>  OEMelectrically adjustable, folding type.
>
> In part, one of the problems is that one or more of the four previous
> owners of car had messed with a few things, including
> trying to force the wrong screws with mismatched threads into their
> threaded holes.
>
> Here's where I went down a bad path though: Most of the wobbling was at the
> mirrors' hinged joint.  The mirror stem attaches
> to the door with four screws, and then there's two more screws accessible
> in the underside of the mirror stem which screw into
> the hinge that's attached to the mirror body.
> I noticed that when I wobbled the mirror bodies, there was relative
> movement between those two screws and the mirror stem.  I
> took the right side mirror off, and tried to tighten those screws...but no
> dice, they were frozen tight.  So I soaked them
> with penetrating oil, and still no luck.  So I figured I'd just drill them
> out and try to find some appropriate replacement
> screws.  Bad move; the screw shanks are still stuck tight in the in the
> hinge.  I guess if I could figure out how to get the
> mirror body apart, I could drill out the shanks and re-tap the holes.
>
> Anybody have any experience with rebuilding these things?  I imagine
> they're probably no longer available new.
>
> James
>
>