So, I've got the low-mount swing lock mirrors (P/N D8TZ-17682-A to beat NumbersDummy to the punch), but the chrome is coming off the mounting bracket. Anyone know how to take them apart so I can get it cleaned up and redone?

I'll attach some photos from an old ebay sale of the same type ($659 for a single NOS, daaaang) because I'm lazy and don't want to go dig mine out to take pictures myself. There's what looks like a 3/8 square drive on the underside, but my attempts so far have just cammed out and I don't want to risk damaging it if I'm wrong

 

Lets see your mirrors. Most of the mounts are not removable due to swedging or peening. They are replaceable parts.

 

The bottom bracket is normally held on by a piece that is like a rivet. I have never take the top break away part apart. But yea you do not want to strip the hdwr head.

 

I don't think the type 9's are serviceable or repairable. Other than the glass of course.

Even if you do manage to get the swing lock apart, I bet the ball stud that the head sits on and swivels on is rusted away. And the only way to access it is with the glass off.

I think there have been a few discussions on here about those studs not being available anywhere.

Just my .02.

 

The rusted stud.

The back side.


The aluminum head rivet that usually pops off and then you have to replace it.

But you want to know specifically about the break away top door mount piece...right?

 

Mine use a grooved rubber gasket to hold the glass in the head by friction alone (no glue) , and that lower bracket that simply pivots is attached via a short shoulded bolt with a thinner than average hex head and retained by a thin all metal nut, only about two threads are visable. The "ball stud" was a miuldly rusted steel, not near as bad as the one pictured above so I just power wire brushed it and coated the stalk in paint and a piece of heat shrink, but the ball I coated with nickel anti-seize but other than rust staining, the ball surfaces weren't bad at all. That upper spring lock bracket is held by a piened in place stud from below that has a square socket head for some reason. I cleaned it of rust staining, wire brushed it, fine sanded it with foam sanding block, and cleared it. I think these brackets are plated steel, but the rest of it is non magnetic, axcept maybe the spring washer in the spring lock ... I did not dissassemble the spring lock. The arms act / feel like an annozed real stiff hard alluminum alloy. The philips screws that tighten the ball in place are stainless steel (as are the rivets that secure the stiffener), but inside the mirror head is a plain painted steel stiffener and the ball clamp is steel, the actual mirror head housing is stainless steel.

Mirrorglassplus #2214 ($27.50 ea) was exactly the right glass, also used for some Dodge Ramchargers but it is turned 90 degrees on a Dodge. Mirrors look great, work great and two new glasses in place are ever so clear. To install new glass, I used RuGlyde rubber lube and after cleaning all dirt out or grooves in the rubber, fitted the rubber on the glass ... it is a tight stretch fit ... and then started the rubber into the mirror housing, then I placed it face down on a flat work bench top, and just pressed. The gasket has a narrow lip so the metal housing never actually touched the bench top. This way, there is no twisting or bending forces on the mirror glass at all. You can use a plastic wedge ended upholstery pry bar to work the rubber into the metal head, it's really a easy 5 minute or less job.
I had let one of my mirrors drop when cutting those mount screws to get them off the old door and my other mirror was scratched so I replaced both, There is no front of back to the mirror glass, same same.

I was replacing my doors so I had to take them off and put them on the new doors. The 8 socket head 1/4-20 screws were froze to the threaded inserts in the door, so I had to cut thier heads off. Glad I had installed washers under those heads so many years ago, saved my mirror brackets from the wheel.

I put them on my new doors using new bolts with nickel anti sieze on the threads, a stainless washer under the heads which I applied some clear over too. My "nut serts workaround" was using 1/4-20 nuts welded to a steel strip mounted inside the doors, spacing on top is 2-3/4", and bottom is 2". The steel I used is 1" wide 1/8" thick and an inch past the welded on nut at each end to "spread the load". I actually drilled #7 holes at spacing and threaded the steel 1/4-20, then threaded a bolt in and finger tighten the nut then spot welded the nut to the steel, the 1/8" steel is held in place inside the door via a couple hidden pop rivets.

I reused the OEM gaskets too, but added 1/4" holes to clear the pop rivet heads.

Easy.

 

Ok so I just went to the shop and attempted to take one apart. Yes the lower one is just a alum rivet and the head popped off easy. I have a parts shed full of brackets like that. Now as far as the top one, yes a #40 bit fits in the underside, I did not have a large enough square bit. And yes it is a shallow square hole and it does strip easy. I do not think that it is meant to come apart. I even used some vice grips on the underside and it did not want to budge. FYI the top side hdwr head looks to be steel and possibly a steel rivet. And there are some washers in between that are wavy to cause break away tension with a ball to lock in a hole once broke away. I guess I could chop saw it in half.....to really get in there.

 

I know was not a lot of magnetism in the bracketry, I'll have to look again, maybe is a square recess in the top pivot head that is piened my machine. The 8 socket head bolts I mentioned were into the door, I had used them in '89 when did that repaint. I used a cleaner in the spring lock at half way between lock detent posittion, worked it ... then sprayed Brake Kleen and blew them dry, then lubed them well. I may have replaced the lower pivot many years ago and just forgot?
Edited below:
OK, the square recess is on the top spring lock bracket, and it's under the bracket going up, piened on top like y'all's are.. My lower bracket pivots are a smooth rounded like button head bolt pointing downwards, they have a hex head recess in them. They are stainless steel shoulder bolts and have a thin brass looking jam nut on the lower end with a few threads showing, but also piened slightly so not to cut a hand at wax time. Looks like I maybe cut the threads short myself so maybe I did them for some reason. If OEM lower pivot pin was aluminum, maybe was worn or sloppy? My lower pivots do pivot smoothly and freely which is why I think shouldered bolts.


The gray splatter is excess nickel anti sieze from my fingers when I was putting the mirrors on, but these bolts will be out for painting soon ... I hope.


You can see the face lip of the rubber gasket that holds the mirror in by friction. If done slowly, one can easily pop the mirror out un broken if needing to service inside the head. One of mine is boxed as a spare now.

If the upper bracket was easily removable from the arm, I'ld be tempted to get all 4 brackets chromed again. I wonder about the pin with square hole coming up through the spring lock, if the piened end was shaved off flush with arm if then easily removable ... and reinstallable? If I did the bottom pivot, I think I could do the top ... maybe.

On the arms there is a second hole between the ball stud and spring lock pivot. I think maybe was so the mirrors could be moved inwards ... which is where the mirrors were when I bought the truck (hence rust stain on bolt head side, I thought I cleaned it off ... but I will now while guy paints the truck, put new bolts in too), but I don't see the same holes in other arms? Maybe a prior owner mod? I moved the mirrors out to these OEM holes when I had a shell on it.

 

Yeah, getting to the ball stud through the glass is no problem, since that glass is straight up gone (I did find some NOS glass for it on ebay, though). Glad to know I'm not the only one that though about reinforcing inside the door to distribute the stress when folding the bracket. The studs may not be available, but something like that should be easily machinable and/or stolen from another mirror.

I have 4-5 extra brackets sitting in a box, so I'll see what if I can pull one of the more junked up ones apart as a tester.. If nothing else, I'll get the replacement brackets from LMC or where ever, and just put my own heads on them. Kinda wanted to see if I could keep it original though.

Tbear, that extra hole in your bracket may have been a mount for a round convex mirror; I've seen some with those mounted for better visibility.

 

Well if you are going to reinforce the brackets from the inside of the door....remember that the threaded insert (nutsert) stays in the door skin. So you will need to make the holes in your bracing plate big enough to fit over the nutsert body.

 

Maybe from flexing or rust and bolts siezed, I had to cut most of mine off flush either inside the door, or outside just grinding the head off, but a couple did break loose twisting in the door metal, then come out bolt, insert, and some door metal together and those I still used a cut off wheel to cut through to get my brackets free to clean rustv stains off. If ever needed, I can remove my home built reinforced nuts inside the door to take to a bench or just replace, just drill out the two rivets from out side. After the truck is painted, after I put the mirrors back on, likely I'll cover any exposed ends of those bolts with silicone before putting my panels back on. Only picture I had up in there.


I was gonna find such but before I did, I stuck surface mounted sticky back 3" ones on my OEM glass, in the outer side lower corners. I do like them ... but not for precision, but just easier to see that something in in a near blind spot.

 

these look very similar to the 1991 1/2 thru 1997 type 9 mirrors.

The top bracket is a giant rivet despite the look of a square drive.
I have redone several of the late 91-97 mirrors and the square drive recess is what I use to center a 1/4" drill bit up thru the bottom. Then follow it up with a 3/8" drill bit. Then the rivet falls apart.
For re-assembly, I used 3/8 stainless steel fine thread bolts.

You can see how I did it here:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-question.html

 

Awesome job McLeod, I am going to copy and past your thread link in my info storage thread for the masses.

 

Thanks - I hope someone can improve or add to the process.
Also, keep in mind that there may be differences between the model years despite looking very similar.

Something I did leave out is:
You should be pretty confident in your skills operating power hand tools.
To remove the head of the rivet on lower hinge I used a cut off wheel on an angle grinder. One slip up and the cut off wheel would have gouged out an area that would need to be reused and then would be a real eye sore.
Be slow and deliberate!
Also, in order to get a drill into the underside of the upper bracket I used my 18v cordless right angle drill. The standard 1/4 drill bit fit there just fine but in order to get the 3/8 bit in there I had to use a shorter than standard bit.
On the initial drill through you need the ability to drill the first hole straight through the center axis of the upper hinge. This is mainly an eye/hand coordination thing.

Also, this should go without saying, but make sure you clamp the mirror assembly down to a forgiving surface.
I clamped it down to a wooden sawhorse.
DO NOT allow the clamped work piece to move as you drill through the assembly because the drill shavings will scratch the soft aluminum arm of the mirror if movement is allowed.

As a side note, on the set that I used on my red truck with the "sex bolts" I swapped those out for button allen head bolts with a nut underneath. They allow the spring loaded mirror pivot to be tightened up to the equivilant of the original product. Very tight and no noticeable sloppy tolerances. These were way cheaper than the "sex bolts" or "barrel bolts" that I originally used. Because it is under spring tension I didn't feel the need to use threadlocker on the upper bolt, but threadlocker should be used on the lower hinge bolt.

Also, after assembly and installation back on the truck, I swung the mirror to a half way location, which actually raises the mirror arm up off of the mount, which allowed me to spray some white lithium grease into the hinge pivot to help ensure years of smooth service.

Everybody attempting this should be warned that redo-ing a chrome plated item in today's world IS NOT CHEAP!
Investigate pricing before getting too far into this.

Good luck!

 

With the nut insert, I'm almost thinking about drilling the threads out and just lining up nuts on the support bracket and using longer bolts.

Thinking about the chrome being jenky.... Wonder if I could hit up the local metal supplier for the 1/8" stainless scrap and try my hand at hand-fabricating replacement brackets. Probably end up looking like crap, but maybe not. It would be a cheap project for while the truck is getting painted

And reading through that rather excellent write-up... McLeod's also a Seattle boy?