Recommendations on Best Sport Mirrors

[flipper58]

I am getting tired of folding wide ol' mirrors in to get the truck in the garage, as well as finally realizing that my truck will never haul something that will require the original mirrors. So, it's time to track down some nice sport mirrors. I'd like to see and hear suggestions on the best looking, best functioning and best quality mirrors members have found and used. Much appreciated.
Phil

[OregonNed]

Please excuse the wheels here, but I have these mirrors - round switched from rectangles.. I think this was on the early years

[flipper58]

Originally Posted by OregonNed

Please excuse the wheels here, but I have these mirrors - round switched from rectangles.. I think this was on the early years

Thanks Ned. I like those. Anyone else have a pic or lead on something?
Phil

[BRL]

Originally Posted by OregonNed

Please excuse the wheels here, but I have these mirrors - round switched from rectangles.. I think this was on the early years

I had put smaller mirrors on my '69, (came with none mounted) but that left me with the three painted over original screws on each side, (tacky) so I decided to put the original type mirrors back on and paint the base to match the body color.

Still haven't managed to shear them off yet.

[OregonNed]

Originally Posted by BRL

I had put smaller mirrors on my '69, (came with none mounted) but that left me with the three painted over original screws on each side, (tacky) so I decided to put the original type mirrors back on and paint the base to match the body color.

Still haven't managed to shear them off yet.

Looks good! But I sure did a
Few weeks ago! Mirror only though - arm and door skin unharmed

[BRL]

Originally Posted by OregonNed

Looks good! But I sure did a
Few weeks ago! Mirror only though - arm and door skin unharmed

Glad you didn't hurt anything but the mirror.

Years ago in my '73 with those big trailer mirrors on it, I was in a 35 mph zone passing a bus stop when a guy standing on the curb decided just then to lean his head out over the road to see if the bus was coming...missed his face by about an inch!

Got to be careful with those mirrors that stick way out there!

[kcsa75]

My only recommendation is don't get them if you want to see anything behind you. The only thing the passenger side mirror is good for is checking out girls on the sidewalk.

[flipper58]

Originally Posted by kcsa75

My only recommendation is don't get them if you want to see anything behind you. The only thing the passenger side mirror is good for is checking out girls on the sidewalk.

No doubt. I really don't use even the big old ones on it now. It's easy to just turn the ol' noggin and look back. Makes you appreciate the fields of vision these old trucks had, especially with all the high beltline cars and trucks nowadays.

[haysonj]

Here's the square ones and they work fine for me towing my boat just have to beware of the blind spots and people driving there looking at the boat

[Hoodogie]

I need mirrors for my truck yours don't look bad but my question is does the passenger side mirror adjust so that you can see the right rear corner of the truck? I've bought two sets of sport mirrors and I can't adjust the right mirror enough to see the rear quarter. thanks Carl.

[NorCalC20LWB]

Try the convex ones for the passenger side..."Objects Closer Than They Appear" style.

[custom10nut]

Small mirrors get you a small field of view. I took the "Elephant ears" off mine to put the Sport mirrors on. It took a long time to get used to them. After the third one had the head fall off, I decided to sand and repaint the old ones. When the heads came off, the vendor I bought them from replaced them without question (evidently it's an inherent problem with the repops), but I just wasn't cool with all the body English needed to check the blind spots.

[smiti7]

I just took the big farm truck mirrors off mine and bought some similar to the above post by 54blackhornet. I got them from Cooper Restorations. He was great to deal with. Nice mirrors. But I haven't had time to mount them yet.

[71CHEVYSHORTBED402]

My doors have 11 or so holes each. Camper mirror to an error to will be 71-72ish sport mirrors. Yeah, the RH one is near worthless, and the LH is pretty weak too, but they look nice.

Rarely do "we" compromise function for looks, but these trucks can call for exceptions. Rear sport bumper included, they're even more worthless than sport mirrors.

If you want sport mirrors, I recommend obtaining the part numbers and buy original. I bought some for my driver, best looking parts on the exterior. Took a little while to find them, but cost about 30 bucks each. Repop backing plates and gaskets run cheap.

[Jrainman]

I run the OEM round style on my 68 ,I really dont have issues using them , But for my 69 I always liked the look of the c/10 sport style mirror ,but lots of guys say they have issues with blind spots ,So I searched every GM style morror and found a mirror that resembles the C/10 sport style mirror, but has a 5 1/4 long arm and the mirror size is 6'' x 3 1/2'' it is a 1 year only mirror for the 1975 corvette they added more arm lenth do to blind spot complants from corvette owners . the only place I found them is from Corvette America so you know they were not cheep but they quality and finish is top notch.

[Richard Jensen]

Hello,
I've got/had the original rec. sport mirrors on my 72. I'd planned on putting west coast mirrors on because I use mine as a daily driver & light duty work truck. I put my truck in the ditch and up on the drivers side Friday morning on the way to work. I'm alright and the truck has a couple of new dents, but the only real damage was the driver side mirror broke at the swivel so now I've got to do something, but I'm not sure what. I don't want to put any more holes in the doors until I'm sure as to what I want to do.

Thanks!
Richard

[cleanfreak]

My 68 has had 5 different sets of mirrors (at least). Jr west coast , factory 67-70 , Chevelle sport (didn't look right) , 65 impala ss (I looked forever to find a right side one , finally did , they seemed to small) , And finally 71-72 sport mirrors , bigger than the other sport mirrors I tried , and look like they belong. Make sure to follow the mounting directions , they are in different places side to side , I feel they need to be this way to be as usefull as possible. Hope my ocd mirror experience will help - Bob

[sick472]

Jrainman, any chance of seeing a pic of those corvette mirrors on your truck? I can appreciate your efforts in getting out of the box and $90 for a pair isn't too bad considering the cheap ones are usually junk.

[Jrainman]

Originally Posted by sick472

Jrainman, any chance of seeing a pic of those corvette mirrors on your truck? I can appreciate your efforts in getting out of the box and $90 for a pair isn't too bad considering the cheap ones are usually junk.

I will see if I can manage someway to do a temporary install , and take a couple of pictures for you

[Daryl87]

I'm in the process of redoing my old truck and I've wondered about mirrors too. When I first did this truck in '84 I didn't like the big mirrors on it (beat up trailer mirrors with white arms) but didn't want to use anything small. I used Dodge truck mirrors instead. Chrome, rectangular but with the arm going through the side of the housing instead of having the exposed bolt on the back of the mirror housing.

As the bodywork is slowly getting done and ready to go back on the frame, this issue pops up in my mind now and again. I really like the visibility these Dodge mirrors offer but I like the asthetics of the round ones posted above.

These were the best pictures I could find right now. This was just before the truck got taken apart.

[Rich69shortfleet]

On my 69 the stock little round mirrors on single stalks never provided much surface area to see much of anything. I then mounted larger rectangular mirrors on the same stalks and they shook in the wind so much they were pretty much useless except for when parking. I eventually ditched them altogether and installed reproduction sport mirrors and have been very happy with them, very stable and very useful even when pulling the car trailer.

[sick472]

I bought the mirrors that Jrainman mentions...

CORVETTE AMERICA 1975-1979 CHEVROLET CORVETTE OUTSIDE MIRRORS. W/MOUNTING KITS, Part # X2592 (pair)

and got them installed. I love the look and quality, but the passneger side needed to be modified to allow me to angle the mirror inward enough to see down the passenger side bed side. I like to set my PS mirror so that, in my natural driving postion, I can almost see my bed side. With a slight tilt of the head I can then see the bed side. The PS mirror would not allow for that positon and I had to use a Dremel tool with a cutoff wheel to grind the mirror ball post down ever so slightly to allow the head to be angled inward just a bit more. The drivers side did not need any mods.

I am 5"-8" and using the stock seat height...the drivers side mirror functions very well, but the lower 1/8" - 1/4" of passenger side mirror is blocked by the door window opening because it has to be mounted below the body line. It could be mounted higher than that body line, but that surface is curved inward and would need a different gasket to compensate for that.

All in all, I am very happy with the install. It just was not perfect. From what I understand, the repop sport mirrors have similar problems on the passenger side too.

Oddly enough one mirror came with two rubber inserts that would allow you to install the mirror without getting into the door cavity. These inserts would require a 3/8" hole to be drilled. The other mirror did not have these inserts nor the instructions for them. "Whatever" I thought, as I used fender washers and nuts inside the door cavity to secure the mirrors. I would not have used the rubber inserts even if they were shipped with them. They seemed kinda weak compared to a solid nut and screw fastener. Again, oddly enough, one mirror came with 24 tpi screws while the other came with 32 tpi, so I had to use different nuts per side.

Here are the pics...

[Daryl87]

Those do look great! I like the size of the mirror and the extended bracket. Sharp looking truck!

[1971Stepside]

Those look great! Did they cover the holes you had for the stock sport mirrors, or did you not have any existing holes?

Love the color of your truck by the way and I see you are in Sedalia!

[sick472]

Thanks for the compliments on the truck and the mirror install...it's turning out pretty good for a self-taught shadetree finagler.

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

Those look great! Did they cover the holes you had for the stock sport mirrors, or did you not have any existing holes?

Love the color of your truck by the way and I see you are in Sedalia!

The truck had the 3 legged side mirrors originally, so I can't say if it would cover all or any of the original sport mirror holes, but I doubt it.

Thanks to Jrainman for the leg work he did in researching all the GM mirrors that just might work!