Many years ago I bought two pairs of NOS Toyo mirrors. These are almost exact duplicates of the 53-56 Ford truck mirrors except they are shiny stainless instead of black. I sold one pair to a FTE member several years ago. These have been on a shelf in my basement for years.




Very very similar to the black original mirrors.




The pair I kept had some spots on the glass of both mirrors.




I was thinkng about roughing up the stainless and then painting them black. Then I asked a powder coater if he could powder coat them. He said "yes" and it would stick better than paint. I asked if the heat would break the glass. He wasn't sure. Today I had to run some errands in Williamsport. So I planned to go to an auto glass shop to see if they could replace the glass if if it carcked from the heat of the oven.

Well it became a moot point. My dilemma was resolved. As I was carrying the box, you see above, from the garage to the house the bottom dropped out and the mirrors fell onto the walk! Crash. Both mirrors had the glass broken. So I will get them powder coated with no worries about heat cracking glass. And with the glass out I can now remove the swivel pedestal and the screws since they should not be black. So it was a good thing. Besides the glass had spots.




Inside the mirror head was something I have not seen before in old mirrors. There was a round piece of carboard and a piece of metal in each one.



BTW, Safe-Lite Auto glass said corporate will not let them do this anymore. They do not cut glass. I had them replace mirror glass for me back in 2018. So he told me to go down the street to a locally owned shop called Williamsport Mirror and Glass. They can do it.

 

Unlucky/lucky "break"!

powder coating is definitely the way to go in that scenario especially if your truck is nicely restored. Looking forward to seeing the finished product!

Safelite probably would have been a lot more anyway and it's always nice to help out the local business.

 

What holds the glass in place? Is there a seal or something I'm not seeing? I'm hoping the frame isn't crimped over the glass at the factory and isn't viably replaceable without glue.

 

Unlucky/lucky is right.

Wayne, when Safelite put glass in my mirrors in early 2000's and again in 2018 when I fixed up my 55 he used adhesive to hold glass in place. The guy at Mirror and Glass said the same thing.

 

There’s a method to painting stainless steel that will work as well. With the right primer. My body shop does this for me on various ss parts I want painted . I feel the advantage of paint over the powder coating is that the paint can be touched up from knicks and rock chips and won’t Micro-scratch so easily.

either way will work though.

 

When I fixed up my 55 F350 in 2018 I bought new window fuzzies. I had to rivet the part of the division bar that shows above the door to the rigid fuzzies stock. Unfortunately I did not buy enough rigid fuzzies. I forgot I had to bend over like 1 inch of each division bar to screw into the door. So the second division bar was too short.

So I made the driver's side division bar. Rather
than order new rigid fuzzies I ordered the shiny stainless steel division bar from Carpenters.

But since I had a Standard Cab I had to paint the stainless division bar. So I scuffed up the stainless division bar with steel wool and painted it with a self etching primer. Then painted it with black. After a couple of years some of the paint peeled off.

 

I hear you, that’s why I opted to leave my SS division bars alone. I didn’t trust it, especially on area like that.

but currently I’m replacing the metal steel bed strips with unpolished SS ones and having them painted meadow green, but at the body shop
so hopefully with that specific process they use and it’s static location it’ll hold up better.

the only thing on my truck powder coated are the two black bumpers and so far they’re holding up great. They can be polished like paint to knockoff the scratches.

 

It was my own fault for not thinking about the inch or so that I had to bend over and ended up short. I think I bought the stainless division bar from Carpenters because it was faster than buying another length of rigid division bar from Restoration Specialities.

 

Abe, I also bought two of those mirrors back when they were first posted. My glass also busted on both when the box fell off the shelf. Have been sitting ever since. I believe the piece of metal inside was an attempt to put pressure on the backside of the glass and the cardboard was a cushion. Will be following to see how yours turn out. Don

 

I believe you were the one that told me about the eBay sale. I bought 2 pair and sold one pair to someone on FTE... was it you?

That's what I thought about the metal. The guy at the glass shop says it's not needed . I plan on getting them powder coated this spring after the weather breaks. The powder coater lives back a long lane in the woods .

 

No, I was not the one who bought your second pair. It was a bummer when mine broke so easily. I have a couple extra original arms / brackets / without heads
that I had planned to mount them to. Hoping you can have yours re-mirrored successfully

 

Abe, I bought a set from you that have FOMOCO stamped in the back of them. I did paint them black and they still look great. My local, non-franchise glass store put new mirror glass in them - they also cut the glass I needed for a vintage camp trailer I had a few years ago.

 

I knew I sold you a pair. Was it the stainless pair?

 

Abe, I don’t think this set was stainless as they had paint on them. I do recall you telling me they were not OEM Ford - I found the FOMOCO stamp after stripping paint off them. After I repainted them the FOMOCO stamp is just barely visible.