Converting a 70 passenger side sport mirror to remote; anybody done this?

As I like to tinker with stuff, one thought crossed my mind:
Upgrading a passenges side sport mirror to remote actuated.
In theorie: Take the internals from a driver side mirror and stuff them into the shell of the passenger side housing. Most likely it won't be that easy. Any killers, why it should not be doable at all?
If there there is a slim chance to make it happen, I will go ahead and search for the parts (passenger side upper housing, internals from drivers side).

 

Thanks, I didn't even know that there was a remote option, going to the dashboard.
My intension is to mirror the setup of the drivers side, with the control on the inside of the door.

 

If you are trying to do that, then the easiest way might be to use the guts out of a driver side mirror.

I would not touch any of the remote guts, but would leave that intact. The mirror part is glued into a plastic housing.

What I would do is take a driver side remote mirror, take out the mirror, and shave off the plastic housing that it sits in. At that point I would mount the remote assembly, with the shaved plastic base into the passenger side mirror, and make sure it moves around properly. Then get a passenger side mirror with the plastic mounting piece, and shave that down so you can glue it to the shaved base in the mirror. It should work.

The most important thing is to make sure you use only the correct size mirror on the passenger side. Later years use wider (side to side) mirrors and they will not fit into the 70-72 mirror housings.

You might even be able to use a later year assembly for the remote guts. That way you won't need to "cut up" a 70-72 driver side mirror, as they are getting hard to find.

Also, and this is important, you will need to make some type of mounting "clip" for the wire in the passenger door. Otherwise the window will catch the wire, and either try to pull the mirror off the door, or the window will refuse to go up.

You will also need to carve out some of the pass mounting bracket so the wire can pass thru the hole in the door, like it has on the driver side bracket.
Duane

 

Many of the GM cars of the later years , 75-76 and up had that option . Pontiac's and Cadillac's especially . . I removed a Passenger side Remote mirror from a Cadillac a while back . Hardest part was getting the cable thru the door jam rubber boot . and finding all the places the cable was secured along the way .

If you want to tinker I think you should look for some of those mirrors and maybe adapt their guts to your mirror . Plus if your car doesn't have PW or PDL now you have to think about how you would run the cable . Unless you just plan to put the control on the door panel itself .

I might have some scrap mirrors at the other garage for you to experiment with . I will look next time I'm up there . Good Luck on your Quest .

 

THX, the procedure Duane is describing, is what I had in mind, also. I would do a 1:1 copy from the drivers door for the routing of the cable.
I guess I will do a post in parts wanted and start collecting goodies.
I know overall it makes no sense in regard to comfort, as I will still have to lean over to adjust the mirror. I am doing it just for the fun of fooling around.

 

I was considering doing this on the X-Camino that I built. I thought it would be pretty cool but never followed through with it.

I figured it would be a good conversation piece, especially on a “prototype” Buick GSX truck.
Duane

 

I have a 1973 passage side remote sport mirror with the really long remote cable. PM me your cell number and I will try and get you some pics of it.

 

Thanks Ryan, much appreciated, but the long cable is not the way I want to go with.

Thanks a lot, that would be great.

 

This is an interesting idea. I’m going to look into this too. I believe there were several models through out the 70’s and 80’s that shared the same size mirror glass like corvettes. I think I saw a 81 Vette with electric powered sport mirrors……

 

Here’s a list of possible RH remote mirrors that may work. The mirrors on this list share the same size glass as the 70-72 RH Buick sport mirror assemblies. In theory the mirror guts could be installed into the early housings. You would have to drill a large hole in the middle of the housing and pedestal for the cable and modify the mounting bracket to allow the cable to pass through then just copy and cut away the passenger side door panel to match the driver side. I guess depending on where the original adjuster was located on the cars on the list.

 

My brother owned a 1971 Monte Carlo 400 ci, 4spd. The remote passenger mirror was an option & his car had it.

 

So I just picked up this supposed corvette RH remote mirror assembly with a2-DMI-8 date code so it’s probably from a 1978. It has the exact sized mirror glass as the one on my GS. I think the way the glass assembly mounts into the housing is the same as well! I just have to figure out how to disassemble the remote control end of the assembly and switch out the pedestal base and bam! Passenger side remote Sport Mirror!

 

Is the cover for the door panel similat to the stock Buick?

 

I have taken the cables off of the adjusting stalk . Its a real Pain in the ass . Make sure you mark the cables and stalk as to where each cable gets attached as it will affect the adjusting . Also mark each cable as to the position it is crimped in the adjusting stalk .

I found that 3 different color finger nail polish works great for marking .

 

Take a drill bit and enlarge the hole in the mirror head. You can just cut the mirror base apart, much better than taking the cable assembly apart.

 

by cover I assume you mean the escutcheon = cover plate that the control end mounts into then yes. It mounts in the same manor as our Buicks. Those were pretty much the same on a lot of different models.

 

Yes I considered that. That would be the easy way to take it apart. However putting the remote system into the correct housing/pedestal would require a large hole to pass the remote end through unfortunately the distance between the two pedestal to housing screws is too close together to allow this. There is only room enough for the cable

 

In the attached photo, the left is the normal driver side mounting. Right is the passenger side. The driver side has a wider mounting screw pattern and a 3/4” diameter hole to allow the remote control assembly to pass through everything for easy disassembly. Trying to add the same large hole to the passenger side would wipe out the mounting screw holes.

Also, it’s simply not feasible to mount the left mirror guts into the right housing and the left mirror glass is specifically cut to fit the left and the right for the right.

 

Well here ya go this is possibly the first 29845 pedestal right hand sport mirror. Pretty easy to do if you can find the right donor remote mirror assembly. Disconnecting the toggle cables wasn’t too bad but I think I was dealing with a remote mirror assembly that was in excellent shape. I used a manual mirror assembly from a 73 Firebird/Camaro which has the correct 29845 base for our 70-72 buicks and the slightly wider 35013 housing. Drilled the 3/8 holes in the pedestal and base and re assembled.

 

Great Job Smitty!
Now I will have a hard time finding the necessary parts, as everybody is going to do this mod .
Just kidding! Your findings are a great asset to me, cause it takes the guessing about the necessary parts away. Try and error in my case would have been a nightmare, as I need to get the parts here in Germany.
Question about this picture:

It appears like the right side housing is quite a bit shorter, compared to the left side. I never noticed that with my car (and now that it sits in an offsite storage, I can not check).