2002 mirror, again

Thanks for these responses to the request for a rubber frame to hold the mirror in place, however after ordering on line, the company said the part is no longer available, any more suggestions?

You can purchase the mirror heads I referenced earlier from eBay, or buy a complete new mirror from Steve at Blunttech.com for $184.95.



Mike Self, the Roundel's 2002 expert, offers the following options from the July 2005 issue:

There are two fixes.

Carefully cut away the remaining old plastic retainer, remembering the retainer spring behind the glass. If the glass is good, clean it and set it aside. Remove the spring; save it for another project. Get a scrap piece of Syrofoam, and carefully trim it so that it will support the glass, holding it in its proper relation with the mirror housing lip. Cut a slot in the Styrofoam so the mirror head's pivot bolt will work properly. Then glue the Styrofoam to the inside of the mirror head. Use RTV or a glue that won't attack the Styrofoam. Once it's set up, glue the glass to the Styrofoam, making sure the glass surface is slightly below the housing lip. When dry, use white silicone to seal the mirror-to-housing seam, tooling it with your finger to make it look neat. You can do further trimming when the silicone's set up.

The second fix was passed on to me by the guys at Maximillian Importing. They told me about a Mercedes Benz mirror gasket from a 70s 113 chassis that's nearly a perfect fit, part number 108-811-00-65, cost $2.40. The M-B part has some small tabs that must be trimmed off with a sharp knife. The fit in the lower corners is off by a few millimeters, but those small gaps can be filled in with white silicone. I'd experiment with replacing the spring in favor of a more forgiving anti-rattle device, just in case the new retainer doesn't fit quite as snugly as the original BMW part.