Rear-view mirror with maplights in my wagon...

[RogueMoog]

My All-Trac's rear-view mirror wouldn't flip with that tab on the bottom, which would irritate me at night (even though my windows are tinted pretty darkly). So rather than just replace the mirror with another Corolla mirror, I decided to go another route.

I used to own two Lebaron convertibles, a 92 and a 94, at two different times of course. If there was one thing I liked about those LeBarons, it was the rear-view mirror with maplights on the bottom edge (because you can't really have a dome light in a ragtop convertible, lol). They would both come on like a dome light if the doors were opened, and had separate switches for each light when the doors were closed.

Anyways I went to the junkyard a few months ago and picked up a r-v mirror from a LeBaron. It was just a matter of fabricating a custom bracket and mounting the mirror to it, then figuring out how to wire it up. I had this bracket welded up at my job, then took it home to round off the corners and edges, then brought it back to my job to have it powder coated.



Another view of the bottom -- clickable link



A not-very-good-quality pic of the mirror test mounted in place, before it was painted -- clickable link




^ Hand-cut with a Dremel!



Another view of the "top" side which contacts the roof -- clickable link



I'm either going to paint that acorn nut ($2!!) or take it back and just cover the bolt threads with a rubbery end cap. The acorn nut interferes with the mirror a little bit, being so close, and I didn't want to cut that bolt and ruin the threads. I don't know. I need something there to keep the bolt from cutting into my sun visors when I put them up. Maybe I'll just cut the damn bolt, lol, and paint the end of it black.

The only real disadvantage of the LeBaron mirror is that it's a little narrower in the middle of the mirror (when looking into it) compared to the Corolla mirror. But it's not that big of a deal. The LeBaron mirror is actually a little wider. I'll get out the calipers and measure it sometime...

My next part of this project is to wire it up. I tried to get as much of the wiring as possible from the junkyard car, so I pulled away most of the windshield molding in order to get a good length. I'm thinking about tapping into the dome light wiring somehow, so that these maplights come on when the doors are opened, though I don't know if I really want them to "always" be on like that (I usually keep my dome light always off).

Any suggestions for how to remove that headliner would be greatly appreciated... I haven't attempted it yet, but at least now I have the room in my own garage to put all the pieces!