Joe and I got brave and took off the stock mirrors and welded the holes up on Monday. We got the 4th bird mirrors on Wed and we installed them last night. It took and hour of pattern cutting and test fits. Then the commitment time began. Joe drilled the holes in the black triangular corner pieces and I dremeld away. The mirror was made to sit in a recessed triangle on a 4th gen.

Well, my piece was flat, so the mirror stuck out about 3/8 of an inch. So I had to cut a recess out of the black plastic piece so the mirror would sit flush. It took 3 hours of slowly dremeling, b/w the 2 sides, to remove enough material, w/o compromising the piece. But at about 2am, I had installed the mirrors and they look great. It will take some getting used to, but I'm pleased. Everything fits solid and I drove it to work with no probs.

I was too tired last night to take pics, but we will post them Sat night or Sunday. Pictures are being taken tonight when we drop it off for its new paint job. Staying with the stock color for now.

 

cool, post pics, write a tech article. This is one appearance mod i can actually stand

Eric

 

Can you post some pics please?

 

Absolutely. I will get the film developed tomorrow and the pics scanned and posted ASAP. Man I need a digital camera

 

I've always wondered if these mrirros are purposely made longer and also have those notches in the front part of them for areodynamic/windflow reasons....my friend has a 94 trans am, and with the T-TOPS off, in his car, there is little or NO wind turbulence, compared to my 86.....with my tops off, i'm lucky if i hear my radio at 65mph....in the 4th gens, you can to 125, and still carry a conversation on normally.....do the new mirrors help in this?

 

Well I guess I will have to take them out and see. Though the quiteness is probably more to do with the slope of teh windshield and how much more it curves. I will check it out.

 

hey redraif GJ on the swap =D
i've wondered, in the back of my mind, whether that project was going to go anywhere. i guess it did

*can't wait for pics*

 

Its at the paint shop now, and Shannon (Redraif) took plenty of pics...but left the film there at the shop! We have to go back in a couple days anyway, so I'll scan and post them then. They fit remarkably well, almost like they were made for a 3rd gen. It was a little nerve racking, welding up the holes in her doors (no turning back then), and then last night drilling holes in her triangular filler pieces to mount the new mirrors (got ours from Scott at http://www.speedautomotive.com). , but it wasn't that difficult overall. Shannon made the pattern off the back of the mirrors, traced it onto the panel, and dremeled out the clearance for the metal bracket that fits inside the mirror until it fit snugly. The dremel kept loading up, so you may want to keep a spare stone or cutter handy. We havent decided what to do on the inside yet, to cover the attaching nuts, but we'll probably either adapt the 4th gen filler peices or maybe make new ones out of carbon fiber. Total time including welding, about 5 hours

 

Cool!! Cant wait to see the end result!

 

Sweet! I definately wanna see pictures!!:lala:

 

BTW, when we were mocking up the mirrors we tried them on a pair of Camaro doors..the filler is the same, and they would look just as good on a Camaro. The 4th Gen Camaro mirrors wouldn't work, though, because they are molded into the fender on the 4th Gens(it bolts up the same, just would look weird).

 

Would like to see the pictures......

Has anyone done this on a camaro?

 

Hey LT1guy / redraif, congrats on the mod! I can't wait to see what they look like. I might have to grab the mirrors of a 4th gen whenever I get the interior panels and try this mod on the maro. I still haven't decided whether or not I am going to do the 4th gen interior or just customize my stock interior, oh well life is full of choices .

 

Hmm.. sounds interesting. I'll need pics to decide whether or not I like it.

 

How are the repairs coming along on your car? I really hated to hear about that.

 

i wunna see

 

Hey LT1guy, the repairs are done...got it back fri. I will post some pics soon. The new front end looks great, but I am going to have to take it back to the body shop so they can replace the wheel stud they screwed up. They put the front two wheels on with a impact wrench and stripped one of the lugs out. I had to chisel, beat, drill, and beat some more for about an hour till the wheel finally was weak enough in broke around the lug and came off. Luckily I had my old Z28 wheels on at the time, because I would have went pshyco on them if they did that to my TTII's.

 

Man this is why I never let anyone take the rims off or put them on. I do it. I have had more problems with tire shops not putting things on right. Though they hate to let you back in the shop. Liability and all. Oh well, if they want the business that's how it is gonna be.

Glad your car is almost all better.

 

Pics???

 

Getting them in the next few days I promise. I had my hands full at the shop when we left and the pics got left with the car.

 

damn you, I wanted to be the first, but havent gotten around to doing it yet. Lookin forward to the pics.

 

Wheres the pics
Wheres the pics
Wheres the pics


Drooling in anticipation....

 

Am I really the first who has done this??? Wow! Cool!

I guess I really be able to tell once I get to the TA Nats in Dayton at the end of the month.

Dang I just stopped and thought about it.... Man I have done alot in a year. Shaving, headlight conversion, mirror conversion, hood, custom spoiler and a new paint job. (yeah!) Not to mention the engine bay make over. I hope they stand out & the Nats take notice.

 

Ahem..thats better !

 

We left the film at the paint shop (about 35 miles away), but hopefully we'll get it Thursday night when we take the front spoiler in (we're still working on it). I should have the pics scanned and posted NLT Sunday night.

BTW, you can get a glimpse of RAIF in the current High Performance Pontiac Magazine (October issue), under the STARS show coverage. Shannon took 2nd in her class. They even wrote a couple paragraphs about our misfortunes along the way to the show (Firebird 1, Armadillo 0)!

 

D@mn those armadillo's!!

 

Ok I did not want to have to load tehm all again, but here we go...

Mirror pic time

 

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Hmmmm...

Here I was thinking you were just a tease! Very nice work. Do you have an idea to hide those nuts? (Man does that sound bad ) Are you going to cover them with another plastic piece? That might be the easiest way actually. I'm looking at some of the new Grand Prix mirrors to see how they'd work, but that looks real real nice.

Nicely done!

S.

 

wuts the prob with the stock mirriors?? theres no work involved and they look great

 

Don't start.

If you like the stock mirrors stick with them. Enjoy.

If she (and others) want to do something different then let us enjoy.

OK? Too much to ask?

S.

 

Wow cool you were able to fit it in the stock location. I was lookn @ the 4th gen Camaro mirrors when I was @ the junkyard (looking for interior pieces) and I was wondering how you were gonna do it.

When I was thinking about a mirror converson, I wanted to do it a bit differently. I planned to cut a square out of the door where the morror was mounted. Then I wanted to measure the space and cut a piece of metal to replace it (friend works @ machine shop). Then I planned to get the mirrors I wanted to mount, and cut mounting holes in the replacement metal. Once I could get the mirror mounted on the metal, remove the morror and weld the piece back into the door. Then mount the mirror and paint over it all. I was thinking about doing M3 style mirrors with the turn signals in the mirror (like the new Mercedes). But then I found out that Rev wanted to do M3 style mirrors, so then I was just thinking about doing straight up Mercedes Benz mirrors from the S55 AMG. Not really sure, but then I decided to just do the EvoII so it didnt matter (wasnt gonna touch the body @ all).

But today I was lookn @ my B4C again, and I really think its a sweet lookn car. I'm planning to buy a 2003 Ford Expedition in a few months so I might put the EvoII plans on hold for a while. Might just keep the B4C stock bodied, get the wheels, get the hood, finish the suspension, do the 4th gen interior, and supercharge the L98. Then find another donor later (will take me years to find one with no rust) for the EvoII project. Not really sure yet. But I know I need a reliable car/truck/suv to get to work and my friend can get me a MAD deal on brand new Fords.

Nice job on the mirror conversion!!

 

Me a tease, never...

Well to hide those unsightly nuts...(sounds like and infomercial)
I got the plastic pieces from the 4th gen as well. It should cover them up on prob and they are already black, so they will blend well. I was too tired to check the night I did the mod, but I have faith. There is plenty of room.

Grand prix mirrors sound good too. I thought about them alot too.

 

Not a darn thing.

I just wanted a different look than 1/2 the 80s cars that have those mirrors. Though I have always thought the mirrors fit best on 3rd gens, versus the others they were run on.

Plus the previous owner tweaked the door very badly. The mirror on the drivers side always sat funny (crooked). It scared the crap out of me when we took off the mirror and I discovered the top 1/4 of my door was 1/4 inch think in bondo. If we had not already welded the passenger side, the mod may have very easily ended there.

Its not easy to weld to bondo, hehehe. No really, we had to sand it out and weld and build it back up with the fiberglass filler. I can't believe it held up for 12 years like that and I had no idea. The metal was so fatigued where they had worked it, it was blowing holes out as we welded. It was amazing the mirror stayed on at all.

So it ended up a necessary mod as well.

 

I know how to get rid of those unsightly nuts....



Nad's® Natural Water-soluble Removal Kit



(sorry.. I couldn't resist)

Looks good tho red

 

Thank you, thank you! We took a chance and ordered them with out testing. And tehy matched up perfectly. (Big Cheer for GM) We put Joe's 4th gen Camaro mirror on just for giggles and it looked bad. Then we put the bird mirrors on it, even worse. It was too funny. :sillylol:

I wanted mirrors with a turnsignal in them as well. Keeps you from forgetting that sig is on. It also lets people on the hwy, when merging in traffic, know you are coming over as well. I always thought it was a good safety thing.

You could do a conversion that way, too. The hard part would be to get the metal to follow the body lines though. To get that slight curve with out too much or too little. Its not easy. And depending on the replacement mirror, it might mount in a completely different area. So you could just fill the old holes with some small metal pieces like me and drill new holes a bit up or down from there. It all depends on the new mirror's angles versus the 3rd gen body angles. How will they meet up. You might have to convert the actual mirror to get it to work. The you could convert it to mount like a 3rd gen mirror. Just thinking out loud.

Its so sad that decent rust free donor cars are so hard to find. If only I could think one to you. We have so many at the yards here and they just get crushed. Thats why Joe and I will rescue one for our own EVO conversion. Bird preservation in a sence.

Don't give up on the EVO. A way will be found, I'm sure.

 

:sillylol: LOL

Thanks!

 

looks good.....

What else are you doing to the car.....

 

What more do you want of me?....:sillylol:

Well...its at the painters getting the body dings and such erased, so to speak. He gave us a good deal to paint it, so I decided to do it. Just labor and I can pay a little at a time. He is a great guy. I just had to get the mirrors done before the TA Nats on the 23-25 of this month. Then we decided to paint it all over. 70% of the paint was 10 years old, it was time.

Working on an idea for the taillights now. I want to make the amber turn signals red and get the whole section to blink with the signal. If I'm motivated enough I will do it before Dayton. I think I can, I think I can...Oh I'm also making the fabric on my doors black. I replacing it with black nauga soft to match the rear.

Next is seats and the engine swap. I still want a monitor for show bordom. Somewhere in there a custom nose clip, like the OTP nose on the yellow bird. Once the engine is swapped and the kinks worked out...Candy apple red paint.

That enough for ya!?

 

what "OTP nose on the yellow bird"

mirrors look good.