Just call me the mirror killer

Jim Mattheiss

Member
Messages
467
Location
Long Hill Township, NJ
I managed to remove the passenger side mirror from my wifes minivan while backing out of the garage :eek: The housing caught on the door jamb and shattered. The mirror popped off the angle/tilt mechanism. At a bare minimum I need another housing an mirror. The angle/tilt mechaninsm appears to be fine.

This is proving to be an expensive Christmas!

Several years ago I did the same thing to the drivers side mirror on my Ford Explorer.

That's 2 dead - stop me before I kill again!

I guess if I didn't allow cars to pull into the SHOP, these sorts of things wouldn't happen.

Cheers

Jim
 
Mirror, mirror on the car
Why did he knock me on the wall

Will I look the same when
when gets his tools after me.
 
My wife was 'guiding' me whilst I backed up my new Nissan PU on moving day in 1997. She said 'whoa' AFTER I'd hit one of the 4x4 porch posts. :mad:

I got even with her though about two days after she brought home her shiny new Mazda Protege. Forgot I had the tail gate down and backed into her. :eek:

Best was the day my FIL was cutting plywood with a circular saw on the tailgate of his new F150... :rofl:
 
I was driving down a narrow country load in my f150 one night with a load of firewood. I met a ton truck coming the other way and I guess neither wanted to go in the ditch so we were crowding the line. Our mirrors smacked each other going about 30 mph.:eek: After I cleaned my pants out I rolled down the window to see if the mirror was gone. Like Larry said, all it did was fold the mirror against the door and leave a little paint on the edge.
 
I just had to laugh Jim, I JUST had my wife open a gift for xmas, it is her passenger side mirror for her car that she removed from the car backing out of the garage:eek::rofl::rofl::rofl:

ps: I got the replacement on ebay. A heated powered mirror for a 2006 monte carlo $49.95 with free shipping:D:thumb:
 
Toni - this is why I love Family Woodworking. You are all a valuable source of information - woodworking related or not. I never thought of Ebay - OEM replacement for the entire assembly is $50.00 (with free shipping). I shudder to think what I paid to replace the same on a 96 Explorer - probably 4-5 times that much.

John - I had a similar incident with a rack body truck where I worked years ago. I ticked mirrors with a phone utility service truck. My mirror folded in and his didn't. He caught shards of the mirror in the neck (superficial cuts but he was bleeding). We stopped and he was EXTREMELY RELUCTANT to report the accident. He said he'd get the mirror on his truck repaired on the sly.

The SHOP IS ONLY FOR WOODWORKING approach won't fly right now. We can't afford to build a separate shop right now. How can I appease the woodworking gods? Apparently my attempts so far have been insufficient :rofl:

City driver my ###! :eek: - If I was a city driver the mirror would have been removed 2 years ago while being sideswiped by a box truck. There would be a piece of mirror duct taped in place and I'd have a stick to adjust it from the drivers seat.

The whole truth is that I was backing out of the garage with the family to go to my parents on X-Mas Eve. My 10 year old son zinged me with some comment and I was turning my head to zing him back when CRACK - the mirror hit the door jamb. That 1/2 second distraction kept me from checking the clearances as the mirrors approached the doorway. It's my fault on so many fronts - getting distracted and conceiving what turned out to be a very witty/funny 10 year old boy.


Cheers

Jim
 
I was driving down a narrow country load in my f150 one night with a load of firewood. I met a ton truck coming the other way and I guess neither wanted to go in the ditch so we were crowding the line. Our mirrors smacked each other going about 30 mph.:eek: After I cleaned my pants out I rolled down the window to see if the mirror was gone. Like Larry said, all it did was fold the mirror against the door and leave a little paint on the edge.

Been THERE, but at about 60mph. Guy drove right in my lane with me, & there was noplace I could go beyond the emergency lane. He kept going, so I turned around & chased him down. He was drunk - really drunk.

That was one of the only two or three times I've ever come entirely (verbally) unleashed on somebody. He finally gave me some cash for my mirror & I let him go. Sooner or later he'll wind up Darwined completely out.

EDIT: In my case, though, it splattered mirror glass all down the side of my truck. Both his mirror & mine turned to dust that day.
 
I managed to remove the passenger side mirror from my wifes minivan while backing out of the garage :eek: The housing caught on the door jamb and shattered.

I confess to doing something similar with my wife's minivan a few years back. However, I was lucky (?) in that the only damage was that the mirrow had a tendency to wobble at freeway speeds. In my defense, how my wife can manage to park a car at a 45 degree angle in a narrow garage is beyond me. :rolleyes:

Best was the day my FIL was cutting plywood with a circular saw on the tailgate of his new F150... :rofl:

Uhhh... I did this as well. :doh: However, it's only an inch long cut in a work truck that I kind of consider a badge of honor. :eek:
 
All these mirror killer stories reminded me of an incident when I was in the navy...in 1963, I bought a 1959 Chevy Impala in Chandler Arizona on my way back from leave when I stopped there to visit my mother... she was in love with the car, but couldn't afford it and as I'm wont to do occasionally, I piped up well then I'll buy it.. you know the drill open mouth wide, plant a foot in it... I was stationed on a ship and didn't need a car, but I got one and found out how popular I became with all my "buddies"... the ship was based at Treasure Island, San Francisco.. a group of my "good buddies" convinced me to take them to a rodeo in Redwood City... after a couple hours there sampling the adult beverages, someone came up with the idea to go to Port Chicago near Vellejo.... we took off, none quite sober, including me the driver... at some point we were going around a sweeping curve on a 4 lane highway and I kept sweeping to my left... and sweeping to my left... we met an on coming car and to this day I will swear our driver side view mirrors clicked as we passed... didn't break them, couldn't see a mark, but we passed close enough I'm sure the other driver could see every freckle on my face as I paled when I finally realized that I was about to take out the side of both cars.:rofl:.... I was stone cold sober instantly and stayed that way the rest of the night. :rofl:
 
Another place for good aftermarket OEM parts is Certifit. Looks like there is one in NJ, but a little ways from you.

My son had rear ended someone a while back. Was able to get all the new parts from them for about $100 less than anywhere I found on the internet. All panels mounted right on, no modifications.
 
Darren:

Thanks for the certifit link. Hopefully I never need to order car repair parts again!

The mirror arrived today and I got it installed with minimal drama.

I got scared for a moment. The wire went up into an inaccessable (from below) portion of the dash. If you take the A-Pillar trim off, the top of the dash pops right up revealing the connection. 3 Torx-30 screws (good thing I had a T-30 bit handy) and it's done.

Chuck - based on what I've seen, some rednecks may have migrated to the big city. . .

Cheers

Jim
 
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