How to Raise the Rearview Mirror
By Barry Gibson
Raising your rear view mirror a couple of inches will greatly
improve the view out the front of the car if you are taller than about 5' 10".
The raised mirror
TOOLS
Medium Philips head screwdriver 1 new, straight, flat razor blade
razor knife -- the longer the blade the better or get a windshield cutting wire (it's made
to do this) from an auto parts store.
PROCESS
Remove the mirror & intermediate bracket. using the razor knife,
cut the black goo under the bracket on the glass, going around the perimeter, working the
blade in/under progressively. once this bracket is off, scrape the back of it absolutely
smooth with the flat razor blade, then scrape the rest of the goo off of the inside of the
glass. consult the phone book for a glass shop near you. they will have the special 3-m
adhesive to glue the bracket back onto the glass. we placed mine exactly between the black
spot and the top of the glass, as seen from the outside of the car. the shop I went to
performed this service for free. the man who did this was very careful not to spill a drop
of anything on or in my car, and cleaned the windshield inside and out to boot. he did
good work; I tipped him $5, my only cash outlay for this project.
RESULTS
Rear view is now about a half inch from the roof. view out the back
is essentially unchanged ... if there is a hill behind, I can't see cars so far up the
slope (big whoop), otherwise rear & side vision is unchanged. front view is MUCH
better. no more ducking to see! why didn't I do this ages ago? it's simply astonishing the
improvement that moving the mirror up about 2" makes.
DRAWBACKS
No vibration with this process. Visors will require some
attention to deploy -- pop & pullback -- but who cares.
COSMETICS
The Mazda black spot is there (don't advise attempting to scrape
this off ... seems to be made of kryptonite), but the mirror hides it and you can't see it
from the drivers seat. someone looking really close would notice the bracket now glued to
the glass, but I'll cover that with my annual tech sticker soon enough ...
The relocated mirror from outside
OTHER
If you are squeamish about the permanence of this process, like I
was, remove the mirror & intermediate bracket and go for a drive ... [you'll be amazed
at how much better the view is]
Barry Gibson
I just did Barry's mirror move and it is a great improvement. I was
a little too aggressive in removing the mirror and pulled a small chunk of glass off with
the mirror mount. I used flat black paint and a small brush to paint the chunk to match
the black square where the mirror was originally mounted. Looks good. I used Locktite's
brand of rear view mirror adhesive (available at auto parts stores). Locktite recommends a
temperature range of 50-70 degrees F for the adhesive so I used a blow dryer to warm the
windshield, mirror mount and adhesive. This is a really good mod if you are over 5'
11".
Rob Robinette
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