I really like the look of those mirrors on your truck.

 

I ran into the same fit issue with mirrors from classicautoparts.com. They too said they had never heard of the problem. They said hey had some black, straight-stem mirrors with more clearance for the hinge, but still not enough without some grinding.

Here are three photos depicting my mirror fit issues. One shows that the hinge and mirror pin needs to be a minimum 3/4" from pin center to outside of hinge. Another depicts the mirror on the hinge, and misalignment of the mirror pin hole versus the hinge pin hole. A third photo shows a broader perspective of the mirror placement and fit issue.

 

Yes Chuck, your hinges look like they have a thicker web than those of my '50 F2.

 

I ended up putting these more expensive ones on. They fit perfectly. Actually, there was already part of this type mounting bracket on the driver's door hinge. I may look for a larger mirror glass later, but for now I am happy with the new mirrors.

 

I just purchased one of those black, straight arm mirrors for my '49 F-2 from Mac's, and was thoroughly disgusted by it's construction.

I suppose part of the mirror's problem is that I am a 30 plus year toolmaker, and I have a vague idea what proper die stampings and weld jigs should look like.

On the one I bought (driver side), the first thing I noticed was that the two bracket halves were mis-aligned by almost 5/16" of an inch. This produced a marked angle for the pivot bolt, which should be perpendicular to the faces of the bracket halves. While the pivot still works, the appearance looks like ****. The main irritant with the mis-alignment, is that the hinge pin holes between the two halves are not aligned, therefore the pin will absolutely not fit the hole. To get the pin to fit, the hole will at least need reamed.

The next issue I encountered, was that the mirror tube seat cups are seriously flared, and not reasonably square with the cup face. The result is that the bracket will not fully slide over the hinge far enough to get the pin installed. The only fix, is to throw away the seat cups, and machine new from bar stock.

Lastly, I noted that the lock bolt hole was, quite frankly, huge. The hole is around 5/16" diameter, or a bit larger. The lock bolt hole in the hinge is for a 1/4-28 bolt. Standard shop practice is to drill clearance holes for bolts, studs, etc., 1/32" oversize. The morons who made the stamping dies for this mirror probably figured things wouldn't line up properly, so they just increased the hole size to accommodate for their lack of skill and quality.

Called Mac's the day after I received this abortion they palmed off as an "original style" mirror, and was told they would have their tech folks look into the issue. That was two weeks ago, and I haven't heard a peep from them yet. I will phone them one more time. If I don't get some reasonable response, like a partial credit to help cover my time in reworking this thing, it will be the last order they ever get from me.

The problem of poor quality from our supplies has, in my opinion, reached epic proportions. In the last three years, I have had numerous parts sent to me by Mid-Fifties, Mac's, and Carpenter's, and several have either been of poor construction, shoddy workmanship, or not faithful reproductions of the original part.

I just got through shipping a fuel neck grommet back to Carpenter's for their examination. I purchased the F...g thing in September of 2013 to replace one I installed in the truck in August of 2012. The first one was developing myriad fine cracks all over its outside surface. Since I could not remember who I bought the thing from, I ordered a new one from Carpenters, figuring the quality would be better. Not so. The second one, if anything, cracked faster than the first. By the time I replaced it with a third one, it was literally beginning to fall apart. After reviewing my receipts, I found that BOTH grommets had come from Carpenters. After a lengthy phone conversation with one of their tech guys, they sent me a new one gratis, and I sent the old one back to them to take a look at.

The list of crappy components is getting horrifyingly long:

There are the two park lamp housings I got from Mid-Fifties 2 years ago that I now need to take off to clean the rust from the insides and paint. Forget the fact that I had a bear installing them to begin with, as the hole locations are off from the originals.

Then there was the temp. sending unit I bought at the same time with the park lamp housings. I took it from the package, installed it into the head, and voila! It didn't work. After taking the damn thing back off, I ran a resistance test on it. I should have gotten some low value such as 6 to 12 ohms at ambient air temperature. What I got was infinite resistance, meaning the damn thing had a open. POS in a plastic package, and I was out $50.

Then there are the parts that, while serviceable, are certainly not duplicates of the originals.

There is the new breather cap I got today to replace my old, original one which has several dents in it. The construction looks good enough, but the slightly raised dome in the center of an original cap, along with the word "Front" with an arrow, are conspicuous in their absence. The top of the cap is as smooth as my granddaughter's behind. Too, the original cap tops were of aluminum, this one is steel. I don't mind the steel, but they should have put in the hump and lettering.

I also received today a new wiper ****. I really didn't expect it to have the white metal insert like the original, but I did expect it to be the same size. The one I got looks original, but is noticeably larger than the old one. I suppose it is possible that the old one shrunk somewhat, but not as much as the difference between the two. Too, the hole is slightly too small, and getting it on the shaft was more difficult than it should have been.

The one thread that seems to run through all these crappy parts, is that they are made "over there", and not here at home. Carpenter's informed me that the mirror is made in Brazil, and the grommet is from China. Firewall grommets, speedometer cables, door check straps, distributer caps, rotors, points, flexible fuel lines, brake drums, wheel cylinders, etc., etc., etc., are most always China, China, China. And it bloody well shows.

I think it would be wise for all of us in this hobby of ours, to raise a helluva stink to our suppliers, and get them to start bring this stuff back home, if they can't get it made right "over there".

End of rant, time for my blood pressure pill.

 

Come to think of it, I did have to work quite a bit to get those black mirrors to fit. The tube seat cups worked, but it took four hands and some time to get them to finally fall into place. Mine must have been shaped a little better than J.D.'s. The 1/4 28 machine screws for attaching to the hinge were not included. I reamed the hinge pin holes because the did not line up. I also shortened the 1/4" lock bolts on the stem, they stuck out like a sore thumb. I did not mind the work, and liked the end result.

This is a new hobby for me, and having half the parts fail, not fit, or take weeks longer than reasonable has been part of the adventure for me. The short comings would not be acceptable in my professional life, but are humorous in my spare time.

 

I chose to use this mirror assembly as well , but I did have to shorten the arm to match the original on the drivers side . As to the quality it is about what I expected and certainly not difficult to overcome .

 

As I said in my earlier post, much of my angst can probably be traced to the fact that I have a pretty good idea of how a manufactured good should be produced. Too, I have also become very familiar with the original parts on these old trucks. My '49 F-2 has been in the family for almost a half century now. When my father got the truck, it had 42K miles. By the time he gave it to me in December of 1982, it had 66K. Not much had been changed on the vehicle since it rolled out the factory door. A couple water pumps, the carb., fuel pump, batteries, bulbs, and the like were about the only items replaced. It finally got a new, original type floor mat in 1986 or 87. New dash ***** the following year. It wasn't until 2012 that I replaced the speaker grille, radio hole cover, and sun visor. I know what the original parts look like, and how they fit. Much of the crap being palmed off on restorers today doesn't really come close to the factory parts, and some items are nearly worthless. Note the fuel neck grommets that didn't last a year in the weather.

Yes, the quality has definitely taken a turn for the worse when I compare many items to ones I purchased in the 1980's.

 

I am glad I bought a lot of my repro parts 10 or more years ago. I haven't had to replace as much as you, but the rubber parts problems (filler grommet in particular) is particularly puzzling. I bought my grommet from DC back then and it has withstood the high ozone up here, the normal gasohol spills, etc. without any issues, it still looks like new. So something has changed. And I agree, it seems to be the country of origin. I recall all of DC's rubber being US-made back then.

 

That is why I contacted Carpenter's about the grommet Ross. I bought my first parts from them some 30 years ago, and they held up just fine. At the same time I got the last filler neck grommet, I also installed a new back glass with Carpenter's own, in-house molded seal. That seal still looks new. Difference between seal and grommet? Country of origin. Given the propensity for the Chinese to adulterate about any product, think melamine in pet food, lead in paint, etc., there is no doubt that they are doing the same thing to the parts Carpenter is buying, and just telling them otherwise.

 

Ross, I generally agree, for example my previously purchased filler neck rubber was no issue. The windshield gasket for a deluxe cab was a different story. I had to buy a new one last winter from Drake. The "new" 10 year old from DC (I think) is a throw away. The new one from Drake was great.