DIY Door Off Mirrors

[ColsJLU]

I have been eyeing the CMM mounts for a bit but couldn’t stomach the price. So… I took a stab at making a sort of copy cat. No fancy CNC here, just 40’s era manual equipment.

Started off making some measurements of the cavity up in the door handle. It’s all pretty odd sized, I think to accommodate draft angles when it’s molded.

Part began as a 1” square of aluminum. I turned the end of the stock to match the taper of the bolt hole up in the handle, then milled a sort of trapezoidal shape that also matches the internal of the handle.

Then I drilled the end where I wanted cap retaining screws with a tapping drill size before split the end, to ensure it will all align when I screw it back together. Next, I split the part, tapped, and drilled clearance holes and counterbores. Followed that with a though hole and counterbore for the mounting bolt.

Screwed it all back together and drilled a hole on the split line. Then I turned a rod a few thousandths over that size so it will clamp tight. Heated the rod and bent it. Finally, I milled the opposite end to accept the mirror and drilled a clearance hole for the mounting bolt. Just need to clean it up and paint it now.

Might even work!

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[dragoneggs]

Always jealous of you metal lathe owners. I have a full wood shop and some nice metal welding, cutting, and bending tools but the only lathe I have turns wood. Well done, sir!

 

[ColsJLU]

Update- brackets are painted and mounted. It’s rock solid. Not a bit of vibration at highway speeds. Location is right, 5” convex mirror has the coverage I need.

This was a bit of a proof of concept. If I did it again, I’d probably copy the CCM design of a single mounting bolt through the block instead of the cap/pinch method. Probably would make for a quicker install and it would be cleaner to leave in at all times. However, this way made it a lot easier to have a hidden through-hole for the bolt that attaches it to the A pillar.

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