Some familiar mirrors ended up on my plate last week

Kataphrakt

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KM8NxMU.jpg


Doing some work on the Ranger mirrors. Basically using them as a test-bed for some experiments/prototyping. As a result I got to tear apart six of these mirrors down to removing the pivot tube.

The mirrors after replacing the pivot tube:
7hXCEGv.jpg


The mirrors all put back together:
BoeGsRC.jpg


Disassembly on these isnt that bad compared to other mirrors. Though it really sucks when i got to the pivot tubes since those are a riveted tube that has to be drilled out. (since i have to tear these down again later I replaced it with a tube and palnut. Less casualties that way)
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DHare

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KM8NxMU.jpg


Doing some work on the Ranger mirrors. Basically using them as a test-bed for some experiments/prototyping. As a result I got to tear apart six of these mirrors down to removing the pivot tube.

The mirrors after replacing the pivot tube:
7hXCEGv.jpg


The mirrors all put back together:
BoeGsRC.jpg


Disassembly on these isnt that bad compared to other mirrors. Though it really sucks when i got to the pivot tubes since those are a riveted tube that has to be drilled out. (since i have to tear these down again later I replaced it with a tube and palnut. Less casualties that way)
Can you tell us what you are trying to do with them?
 
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Kataphrakt

Kataphrakt

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Can you tell us what you are trying to do with them?
Not the specifics, but the short of it is:

A). Nothing related to the actual Ranger program (not fixing any issues, not making improvements specifically for Ford)

B). We are taking component X and swapping it with a different version of component X and hoping that it survives all the endurance/lifespan testing.
 


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Kataphrakt

Kataphrakt

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How about making them extendable? Factory towing mirrors would be great.
That depends on what Ford wants. We have made extendable mirrors before (powered and unpowered). The new Silverado trailer-tow mirrors are an example of this.
 

weasel1

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Perhaps you could answer a question for me. Is there wiring in the door for heated mirrors?
 

Texasota

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Wow! I now have a better appreciation why these are expensive to replace.
 

coblueberryranger

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Yeah this would be neat if you were able to locate a way to swap some of elements from the lariat heated/turn signal mirrors to the xlt mirrors...intrigued

or if you could confirm the wiring is available for such parts swap
 

Langwilliams

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I'd like to add heated mirrors too...I've watched the video of adding generic elements off Amazon on another test vehicle. It would make life easy of there was power wires in there an a place to add a switch if it wasn't powered by the rear defrost button.
 

Rviator

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That depends on what Ford wants. We have made extendable mirrors before (powered and unpowered). The new Silverado trailer-tow mirrors are an example of this.
My 2006 F-350 had manually extendable mirrors. They were great!
 
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Kataphrakt

Kataphrakt

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For the heated mirrors, I have no idea if there is door wiring for them on the Ranger. I have yet to take one of my mirrors off of my truck, and have been attempting to avoid anyone who wants to use my truck for ride-n-drive testing! Otherwise, to run wires from the mirror base to the glass-sub wouldnt be too hard, the connectors mirror-side have empty slots for where those wires would go, so if you can find the right crimps you could add them in properly too.

I'm not too happy about Ford's decision to leave heated mirrors out of most vehicles, it makes it impossible to get frozen over mirror glass clear (since the manual tells you not to scrape ice off them for good reason!).
 

JimJa

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European outside mirrors are VERY SUPERIOR to those we have in the U.S. The outer 1/4 of the mirror is turned out, that is, convex, allowing complete blind spot coverage at a glance. In Europe there is a fine line that separates the flat portion from the curved portion. Unlike the little square in the upper left corner of our mirrors or the yellow dot, they are much easier to adapt to There was a company that made them as a stick-on for American vehicles called Multivex ,but believe they only make their mirrors for motorcycles. I had them on every vehicle I owned but have been unable to obtain them from a European source due to slight differences in the mirror shape of U.S. vehicles I own.
 
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Kataphrakt

Kataphrakt

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European outside mirrors are VERY SUPERIOR to those we have in the U.S. The outer 1/4 of the mirror is turned out, that is, convex, allowing complete blind spot coverage at a glance. In Europe there is a fine line that separates the flat portion from the curved portion. Unlike the little square in the upper left corner of our mirrors or the yellow dot, they are much easier to adapt to There was a company that made them as a stick-on for American vehicles called Multivex ,but believe they only make their mirrors for motorcycles. I had them on every vehicle I owned but have been unable to obtain them from a European source due to slight differences in the mirror shape of U.S. vehicles I own.
I work with those since anything we make a export version of comes through our facility. The term used to describe them is "aspheric" since they're not uniform in curvature. I would much prefer to have those over the spotters as it provides a great FOV. Unfortunately the US regulations do not allow curved glass (excluding the small corner spotter) on the driver's-side mirror, While requiring the convex glass on the right-hand side mirrors unless they are above a certain size. One could get around this by making separate pieces, but that kind of ruins the point of the aspheric glass.
 

Cmar

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Used to be that way here in Aus as well for a long time you could only have wide angle mirrors on the passenger side, and then someone finally realised convex mirrors are a lot safer for avoiding the blind spot and so they've actually been recommended now for a quite a few years for both sides.
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