tcolt

I'm adding the mirror to my 1972 Vista Cruiser and I traced the patern of holes and slots from the drivers side and was getting ready to put them in the passenger side, but I wonder if I need to make a sheet metal doubler like the driver's door has to reinforce the door for the mirror or if the passenger is already factory-prepared for adding a second mirror?

Thanks, Tom

Gary M

Inline tube sells the support if you need it. Passenger mirror placement may be different from the driver side if you have vent Windows.

Tedd Thompson

What ever you do lay it you so you can use the mirror from the drivers side.I don't know about VC but on my ride if I had attached it in the same place as the left hand mirror It would have been almost impossible to adjust to see out of.... Just a thought ...Tedd

tcolt

Thanks guys. Darn, I already drilled two small holes for the centers of the large mounting holes. Hopefully they'll overlap...

redoldsman

Good advice Tedd because that is exactly what I did on my 54. I have a mirror on the right door that is completely useless.

Fun71

Yes, you definitely need some sort of support on the inside. I made one out of a small piece of flat aluminum (maybe 1/8" thick or so) as aluminum is much easier to work with than steel.

tcolt

Aluminum is a good idea. I'll epoxy it to the inside of the door. Does anyone know if the factory had a "normal" mounting location or did they mount it forward / rearward of the location they used on the driver's side? Inlinetube's ebay auction shows their part, but doesn't have any additional information.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1970-72-Old...9W5yDV&vxp=mtr

Bfg

I was going to add a passenger side mirror to my 55 also until I discovered it being useless if mounted in the same location as the drivers mirror. I just chose to leave it off.

Lsx442

This is a great tip. Something I wouldn't have thought of until after it was all done and I couldn't see out of the mirror

tcolt

It looks like I got lucky. On my 1972 Vista Cruiser the driver's side mirror is already positioned right at the vent window post, which means that if I put the passenger side mirror in the same place the actual mirror surface will be behind the post and therefore unobstructed.

What I don't quite understand is why the holes with the slot for sliding the mirror bolts in are different sizes. The bolt heads are both the same size and the hole doesn't need to be that much larger than the head? Any ideas?

Thanks for all the good help, Tom

Gary M

For the remote mirror adjuster cable some cars have.

Fun71

FYI, I measured the mirrors on my car and they are both the same distance from the rear edge of the door to the rear edge of the mirror mount.

2blu442

I'm pretty sure Scott (oldspackrat) has sport mirrors on his Vista Cruiser. You might check with him and see if he had any issues to work through before you drill the holes larger.

Gary M

Just have someone hold the mirror where you are going to mount it while you sit in the driver seat. If it looks like it will work, mount it.

tcolt

Thanks. I already checked it out. As shown in my picture, the mirror is right at the post, so the line of sight is actually just behind it. The people that had trouble with this must have had their first mirror mounted forward of the post to have interference?

At, the most, I catch a bit of the vent window post in the mirror at the front edge of the mirror. Is this what people mean when they say it's useless or almost impossible to see out of?...

Gary, good note on the hole size. That probably explains it and I'll keep it that way, even though it will be harder to make the holes and no one will know but me :-o

tcolt

Ken

Did you shape your doubler to fit the curvature of the door skin or did you leave it flat and let the mirror screws pull it snug? It seems like one could go either way with 1/8" aluminum, but I don't want to put any creases in the door skin. I'm going to epoxy it in for extra strength and convenience of holding it in place.

Thanks, Tom

Fun71

It was just flat plate aluminum with no contours. I used two small machine screws to hold the plate in place, but epoxying should work well with less work involved.

Tedd Thompson

And a added note for the 54-55 guys I put a bubble stick on mirror like used on large trucks that just fit the diameter of the passenger side mirror. It's hardly noticeable (haven't lost a point at any show yet) and really helps on the major blind spots I have when the top is up.... Tedd