Phil is right. The reason so many mirrors are mounted forward on front
wings is the placement of the splash panels behind the front tyres.
Dealers were lazy. To mount a mirror farther back on the wing, the
splash panels would have to be removed - an unnecessarily
time-consuming
task. Mounting them on the doors would require removing the door
panels.
There's an easier way available to us in modern times - it's called the
RivNut. They're threaded inserts - you drill a blind hole, install the
insert with tool, and presto! a thread in the sheet metal, complete
with some backup to keep the sheetmetal from taking all the stress.
This is how my door mirrors are mounted.
They're aluminum, so they won't rust. They're cheap. You should be able
to find them at any large hardware store (around where they have
rivets). You can install them with the simple tool included in the kit,
or get an adapter for your pop-rivet gun if you're going to do a lot of them.
I use them most anywhere I have to fasten something to the sheetmetal,
places where the factory would have used a self-tapping sheetmetal screw.
Use loctite on the threads when you install the mirror.
|