Kerry's 308 GTS Project

Mirrors

One thing that I immediately missed was an outside mirror on the passenger's side.  Ferrari didn't start putting mirrors on both sides of the 308s until the QV model.  When I ordered the window switch from Ferrari UK, I also ordered a right hand mirror.  I had a hard time finding the correct part in their online catalogs as the parts pages for my car (US model) didn't show the mirror.  Finally I realized that I needed to select a UK model in that it would have to have a mirror on the right side being a right hand drive car.

I was going to get the mirror installed, but got tied up with the horn problem that took most of the day.  Installing the mirror will take a while too as I'll have to remove the arm rest, door lever and door panel to have access where the bolts for the mirror need to go.  Keep tuned as I'll get back to this in the next day or two.

I did start on the passenger mirror, but couldn't finish it.  It turns out that you don't have to remove the door lever, but you do have to remove the speaker grill as it covers a screw holding the panel to the door.  The new mirror had sheet metal screws to hold it to the door.  Easy installation, but not too secure.  I looked at the original mirror and found that Ferrari used machine screws. 

So I removed that door panel to see what they put on the inside for the nuts.  It turns out that they just used a thick piece of steel that had been drilled and tapped for three screws.  One to hold this plate in place and the other two for the mirror screws.  Without the third screw, someone unscrewing the mirror would find the steel plate dropping down inside the door unexpectedly.

I used a piece of steel about 1/8" thick and an inch wide.  After drilling and tapping the holes, I carefully measured the location of the new mirror on the car, center punched and drilled where I wanted the holes to be.  I had already removed the door panel so it was just a matter of holding the plate while putting in the center screw.

Then I got ready to screw on the new mirror and discovered that it is a left hand mirror, not the right hand that I ordered.  The two labels, one from Ferrari and the other from Ferrari UK, said RH, but the bottom of the box has SX on it.  S in Italian is short for sinistra or left.  I wanted a box marked DX where the D is for destra or right.

Identical to my LH mirror Californian SX

So I sent an email off to Ferrari UK to see how they want to handle this.  At least everything is done except for just screwing the correct mirror on, so it'll be fast when the right one does arrive. 

Since the door panel was off, I was able to retrieve the red warning light assembly that fits in the bottom of the door edge.  The red lens that holds it in place was broken, so the whole unit got dropped inside the door at the bottom.  I put some duct tape on it and left the other end stuck to the outside of the door so I can retrieve the assembly when I get a replacement one. 

It turned out that I didn't need a new door light.  I had pulled out both seats for cleaning and repair.  When my wife was cleaning the passenger seat, she found the broken off lens and gasket in the elastic pocket.  I was able to epoxy it to the other part, re-assemble and install it.

The last problem was that the window switch on that side no longer lowers the window.  I pulled it out expecting to find that I had loosened a wire in my playing around, but everything looks fine.  The window works from the driver's side switch, so it isn't motor or wiring to the motor problem.  Maybe the switch just gave up the ghost coincidently with my working on the door.  In any case, just one more item to add to the list.

The other thing I noticed was that the view using the inside mirror was pretty blurry.  I took a swipe at it with a cloth and though that helped it was far from correct.  After I got the car back in Seattle, I took the front cover off the mirror.  You can't remove the whole mirror as it's glued to the windshield (not true, see below).  But with the front off, I was able to clean both the mirror and the glass front.  That helped, but the silvering on the mirror is old and still left some fuzziness.  I decided to put it back together with the original mirror as the cleaning did help quite a bit.  However, in trying to put everything back in place, I managed to drop the mirror and break it.

So now I had no choice but to replace it.  My wife found a small mirror of the right thickness and she cut a new one for the car from that.  However, one of the cuts was too straight so it didn't quite look right.  There wasn't enough of that mirror to cut another one, so she looked around for another source.  We had a medicine cabinet that she never liked and when taken off, that mirror was also the right thickness.  Now I not only had to get the mirror done, but repair the wall where the cabinet was and install a new one.  This time the pattern was done more accurately so the outline was much closer.  The corners really can't be cut with a glass cutter, so I tried to think of a way to grind or file them to the right profile.  I remembered that I have a small wet grinding wheel designed to sharpen chisels, planes, etc.  I tried a sample of the mirror on it and found that I could safely grind the corners to the right profile without it breaking.

Then it was just a case of scribing the exact outline onto the back of the new mirror using the taped together old mirror and grinding away everything outside of the line.  After that was done, my wife took the new mirror and figured out how to put everything together without dropping it like I did.  Now I have a better chance of seeing the police before they see me.

Well, it turns out that the interior mirror does come off the windshield.  I was trying to reach something in the passenger foot well from the driver's seat and hit it with my head.  Not exactly the way I wanted to figure this out, as the mirror came off, leaving the mount on the window and a fitting on the mirror stalk that fits into it.  You can see a spring clip in the hole that holds the stalk in place.

Of course, when the mirror fell, it fell hit the gear shift knob and broke the front glass.

At least, this is plain glass and I didn't have to worry about the thickness (I thought at the time).  The front of the frame with the glass comes off by prying on the lower edge with a screwdriver. Same process to make the new glass, tape the pieces together, trace the edge, cut and then grind until it fits.

   

At the top the glass is held in the frame front by a couple of rubber pads.  Once these are removed, the glass can be inserted and the pads replaced.  At the bottom, there are a couple of flanges that keep the glass in place.  When I went to put the new glass in, I found out that it was a little thicker than the original glass and I had to use a Dremel to thin the flanges.

   

I cleaned both the mirror and both sides of the glass before popping the frame front back on the body.

Re-installing the mirror simply requires a hard push on the base to clip the mirror stalk back into the mount on the windshield.