My ’63 Polara has been on the road for
almost 15 years (since I finished it in
2003). One problem has driven me nuts
since then: The outside mirror (manual,
on the left door) constantly flops down
to the lowest position, on even a slight
bump, breeze, and so forth. I have taken
the glass out it looks like there’s not any
way to tighten this thing up. I know you’ll
tell me how to fix this.
Yup, use Crazy Glue! Am I crazy? Yeah,
I know you’d still like to adjust it. Here’s
the plan: Mask the area with towels, rags,
etc. Spray as much of the ball as you can
with brake cleaner, then allow it to flash
off (dry). Next, apply several drops of ordi-
nary dollar-store cyanoacrylate adhesive;
as soon as the stuff has dispersed around
the ball, move the mirror continuously, in
all directions for at least 60 seconds. The
adhesive will dry to very small crystals,
curing into something resembling a superfine
sandpaper coating on the ball. This
will increase friction, keeping the mirror
where you set it. If, unusually, this isn’t
enough, perform a second application, or
just remove the glass and dribble in more
Crazy Glue from inside.
In a bizarre Catch-22, most later mirrors
(identified by no snap ring present and
larger, 4˝ glass), have adjustable pivot-ball
preload—but you have to break the glass
to access the screws (!), so you may well
want to use the glue fix on those as well.