57 Side Mirror Placement?

[lancemb]

OK, this is a question that has been bugging me for awhile. My Roadmaster has dual side mirrors mounted at the front of the doors. This looks good and makes it easy to adjust from in the car, but the problem is that I cannot see the passenger side mirror from the driver seat, rendering it useless except for passenger enjoyment.

My Super originally had them mounted on the front fenders. I have seen them mounted on the doors and well as various distances from the door on the fenders.

Does anybody know what is "correct" from the factory? Or were many of these dealer installs, thus accounting for the vast variation depending on customer preference.

Personally, I like the way it looks on the doors but doesn't make any sense, so I will return them to the fenders on the Super and probably on the Roadmaster at some point...

[Caballero2]

Both are correct from the factory. The fender mounted ones should have a hood over the mirror glass to help prevent the mirror from being knocked out of alignment. The door mounted mirrors do not, but could be re-adjusted from inside the car. I have attached a couple of original drawings depicting the proper location of the door mounted mirrors. The template would have to be reproduced at a 1:1 scale to be accurate for drilling the holes. My Roadmaster has door mounted mirrors, and my Super has the fender mounted. I prefer the door mounted.

[lancemb]

OK thanks for the info! I didn't realize there was a correlation between fender v. door and hooded v. non-hooded. So non-hooded mirrors never were mounted on fenders? I prefer door-mounted except for the fact that the passenger side mirror is hidden behind the windshield post for the driver - do you find this to be true as well?

If I wanted to reproduce the template, what size should it be printed as - 8.5 x 11"?

Thanks!

[Caballero2]

Print on 8 1/2" x 11". If your print software says the image is out of limits, print anyway. This should give you a 1/1 scale. If this does not work, I would send the print to you.

I have yet to mount my mirrors, my Roadmaster is just now reaching the finish in the restoration process. I have to mount the left fender and front bumper. I then will mount the mirrors and the front seat farings. Then the debuging begins.

- Dan

Edited February 12, 2010 by Caballero2 (see edit history)

[lancemb]

I tried this out, and it printed in correct scale and perfectly matched the mounting of the original mirrors on my Roadmaster! I am going to put the same type on the Super being finished. Thanks!

[Caballero2]

I mounted my mirrors today. I agree that the right side mirror is nearly useless to the driver. It does look good though.

Dan

[stealthbob]

For what its worth...the same condition exists for my 54 Roadmaster. The passenger mirror is useless to the driver, unless said driver is outside the car looking back at it from the passenger side.