Passenger side mirror

[Guest u571]

Hi, Im new to the riviera forum and in fact am still waiting for delivery of a '63 arctic white and deluxe red interior "new family member".

This will be my first american classic and the plan is to keep her bone stock and as original looking as possible.Previously I have restored/upgraded a '88 bmw 535is and a'90 chrysler tc maserati.

I want my riv to look original and so my question(finally) is what is the consensus about adding a pass. side rear view mirror?was this a factory or dealer option? and is the position different than the driver side remote mirror?

Thanks,Mark

[Jim Cannon]

The driver side mirror was an option (factory was a remote mirror, dealer could be remote or manual).

The stock Riviera had no side mirror on the driver side. But 80% of Rivs were sold new with the side mirror.

You could have asked the dealer to put a mirror on the passenger side, but that was not a common thing to do in '63.

If the dealer did, it would likely be a manual mirror (not remote control with a knob inside the door). I'm not saying you can't put a remote mirror on there, I'm just saying it would not have been a common thing to do.

A nice thing about the '63 Riv remote mirror is that it is reversible, it can be made to work on the passenger side and have the correct angle. But you will find that the small flat mirror glass is not worth much in terms of being able to see things behind or beside you. That's why modern cars went to the slightly convex glass mirror on the passenger side.

And it is tricky to get the passenger side mirror on the door without interfering with the vent window opening.

I really miss not having a passenger side mirror when I drive, but I have not put one on my '63 for the above reasons.

[CTX-SLPR]

I cloned the drivers side to the passengers in terms of the mounting of both the mirror and remote joystick. However the mirror is useless as the vent window pillar blocks the view of it. I kinda knew this at first and more did it for style symetry than for practical value.

[60FlatTop]

I picked up a nice extra mirror for the right side of mine, jeez, maybe 15 years ago. It is in a box on the Riviera parts shelf in the garage.

I find the safest way to change lanes or enter an expressway is at about 3/4 throttle. The 55-80 time is short. Always accelerate for lane changes!

[Guest u571]

Thanks for your responses.My goal is more symetry than safety as I have seen '63's both. Two mirrors looks better to my eye but I dont want to do it if it would lose points at a future car show.