- Joined
- Jul 27, 2012
- Messages
- 3,127
- Reaction score
- 491
- Location
- Brisbane - Australia
- My Car
- 1973 Mustang Convertible
INTRODUCTION.
Hi to all,
I am very pleased to announce that i have recently invented a custom, retro fit power mirror system for the 1971 to 1973 Mustang models. After many months of personal research and development, i have invested a great deal of my time, money, and effort into coming up with a good quality, sound, working power mirror system for these cars. It all started for me a few years ago when i got increasingly frustrated with the hard and clumsy procedure of lining up the passenger's side mirror correctly.This led me to thinking how great it would be if the 123 Mustangs had power mirrors in them. I came up with a temp idea of inventing a thin push stick that the driver could use to adjust the passenger's side mirror glass from the driver's seat while he or she was sitting in the normal driving position.This idea works, and makes life a lot easier for the driver to accurately adjust the mirror.(See my post on this subject)
http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-austin-vert-s-easy-mirror-adjuster
But i still wasn't really happy with the whole thing, and so i set about to start investigating the remote possibility of setting up power mirrors for the 1,2,3 Mustangs. Lets be honest and admit that most of us have become very used to living with power mirrors and even power windows on the cars we drive today. We take these items for granted mainly, and don't think twice about them as luxuries anymore, except when they're not there. I quickly realized this invention would mean using various different parts sourced from different cars to make the project come together. I also realized that living in Australia has made the whole project more difficult and more expensive as well, because i needed to experiment with various different parts on a trial and error basis.The shipping costs for bringing even small parts into my country is very expensive, and therefore i did not have the luxury of experimenting with a decent variety of potentially suitable parts.The main problem i was confronted with from the start, was that the '71'-'73 Mustang mirror bodies are small by size, shape and design.Trying to find suitable mirror motors and backup mirror plates that would fit into these small bodies was a real challenge.There can be no compromise in not keeping with using the proper 1,2,3 Mustang mirror housings or bodies. Upgrading to a different or larger body shape or design i felt was not an option, and would take away from the originality of our year model cars.So the real challenge was to come up with a system or invention that would utilize the '71-'73 mirror bodies and incorporate all working componets to fit.
My approach to this project would be best described as semi professional/ professional. My system is a complete custom, retro setup. As i was working my way through the R&D, i got to thinking how fantastic it would be, if you could just walk into a shop, and buy the whole thing ready made to install and swap out. But finding a company that would tool up and take on manufacturing a limited number of these power mirrors would be hard. Most companies these days are strongly profit driven, and are not interested in tooling up and manufacturing for small numbers of product. Maybe a Chinese company would be interested,or maybe the likes of Scott Drake, who knows. In my invention and designs, i have tried to keep things as simple as possible, however, the end product is by it's own right, a complex setup.Sorry about that folks. In going about this project, my overall idea of course, was to make these mirrors for myself to enjoy, but to also give back to the world and share what i have done with others, so they too can benefit and enjoy having power mirrors at their disposal if they want to as well. In this sense, i have targeted the '71'73 Mustang forum first. I am not interested in going to the trouble of taking out patents for any of my specific designs.This project is not about making monies or profits for me. If anyone wants to copy what i have done,and profit from it, or even invent and build a better mouse trap, well that's all OK with me. I also thought hard about finding local fabricating companies, and getting them to reproduce some of the parts that go into my system, so i could sell them on without making profit, to any Forum members who would be interested in buying the parts for their own benefit to make life easier in getting this system together. I decided against doing this, as i did not want to go down that road of starting to run a small business to manufacture, sell and distribute parts around the world. So in that sense then, my aim or end plan is to pass on all the details necessary for anyone to reproduce this whole setup that i have invented and end up with a good working system, having power mirrors for themselves to enjoy as well.
It also occurred to me that because this system is completely retro, there will be some 1,2,3 owners who are serious about keeping their Mustangs very original, factory, and true to the period. I understand and respect this, so these power mirrors would probably be not for you i guess in that sense. Also, my invention is fairly complex, and is not a walk in the park to replicate and reproduce. It also requires a medium to high skill level to produce yourself. This well might put some people off going to the effort and trouble of trying to reproduce these mirrors for themselves. I understand that as well and would respect you if you thought the whole project was just too much for you, you lost interest, and you walked away. If you find that you are not sure or feel somewhat hesitant about taking on this project, then my advice to you would be to wait until you catch up and read most of my upcoming tutorials before you go out and start spending money on the project. Doing that will help make up your mind if this project is for you. From the money side of things, switching to power mirrors won't be cheap.This depends though, on what approach you take to the project. For example, if you were to do all the labor work yourself, and just went out and bought the parts and materials to do the whole job,then that would be the cheapest way to go, and your costs on that basis would be around $1,000.00 American.But the cost outlays go up when you (A), sub out any labor to pros to take care of, and (B),you have to go out and buy some tools that you may not have to carry off the project.
As i said, depending on your personal skills levels, you might well end up subbing out some of the work involved to other more qualified people,like spray painting or doing the auto electrics, thus adding to the overall costs of the whole project. So the wider your skills base is, the cheaper the whole project will be for you, the less, more expensive. If you gave the whole job to a professional company to do, it would not end up being a cheap exercise for you when completed.I feel a lot of the work involved is very DIY and manageable. You'll just need time, interest, effort and patience.You will also need to tool up to some extent to carry out some of the work needed. I will discuss that later on as to what's needed there. In my own personal case, one of my weak areas is auto electrics. I teamed up with a pro auto electrics guy to climb on board with my research and doing the final electrical install.That didn't come cheap for me, but in my case it was something i just had to do to make a success of the invention. Everything else concerning the project, i handled myself.
It is my intention to follow up with several part, detailed tutorials explaining everything as to accurately reproduce this setup for yourself. This will include technical detailed descriptions, drawings with accurate measurements, photos, and shopping lists of what to buy and where to buy it.
The good news, is that my invention is suitable for all 123 Mustangs that may have original factory mirrors, or new repro 1,2,3 mirrors as well.With my system, you have options as to which way you want to go, but there are limitations with this also. That will be explained in more detail later on. To kick off, i have put together a small video to show off the finished product or result of what i have come up with. My system works, and should prove to be reliable, sturdy, and give good service. If any parts do wear out or play up, my design will let you access that part and replace it without too much drama or fuss, as all components are knockdown and accessible. And the big plus with my system, is if you want to remove my power mirrors,and go back to your original manual mirror system, you can, as you will not have damaged or destroyed any of your car in the process of installing my mirrors.
I have enjoyed the challenge of this project, and am proud of what i have come up with in many ways.If you are like me, and have a good desire to have and enjoy power mirrors for your Mustang, then this IS the way to go for you. Also, you may have some technical questions straight up for me to answer. Could i ask Forum folk to wait until i start posting the tutorials on the project, as they will cover and explain all or most of what's involved and how i went about it. All i want to mention right now is that my invention is based on using 1,2,3 Mustang repro mirror housings, Ford Thunderbird mirror motors, and a Ford Mustang mirror switch. All details will be revealed later on in my follow up tutorials.
So inventing these power mirrors has been a labor of love for me, and i am pleased and proud to pass onto the rest of the world what i have come up with as well. I sincerely hope that if you decide to tread my path, and get a set together for yourself, you will enjoy and add to your Mustang driving pleasure experience as well.
POST EDIT: Sorry folks, i made a little mistake in my video. I said, click the mirror switch to the right for the drivers side mirror control. I should have said click to the right for the PASSENGERS side mirror control.
Many thanks,
Greg.::thumb::
Hi to all,
I am very pleased to announce that i have recently invented a custom, retro fit power mirror system for the 1971 to 1973 Mustang models. After many months of personal research and development, i have invested a great deal of my time, money, and effort into coming up with a good quality, sound, working power mirror system for these cars. It all started for me a few years ago when i got increasingly frustrated with the hard and clumsy procedure of lining up the passenger's side mirror correctly.This led me to thinking how great it would be if the 123 Mustangs had power mirrors in them. I came up with a temp idea of inventing a thin push stick that the driver could use to adjust the passenger's side mirror glass from the driver's seat while he or she was sitting in the normal driving position.This idea works, and makes life a lot easier for the driver to accurately adjust the mirror.(See my post on this subject)
http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-austin-vert-s-easy-mirror-adjuster
But i still wasn't really happy with the whole thing, and so i set about to start investigating the remote possibility of setting up power mirrors for the 1,2,3 Mustangs. Lets be honest and admit that most of us have become very used to living with power mirrors and even power windows on the cars we drive today. We take these items for granted mainly, and don't think twice about them as luxuries anymore, except when they're not there. I quickly realized this invention would mean using various different parts sourced from different cars to make the project come together. I also realized that living in Australia has made the whole project more difficult and more expensive as well, because i needed to experiment with various different parts on a trial and error basis.The shipping costs for bringing even small parts into my country is very expensive, and therefore i did not have the luxury of experimenting with a decent variety of potentially suitable parts.The main problem i was confronted with from the start, was that the '71'-'73 Mustang mirror bodies are small by size, shape and design.Trying to find suitable mirror motors and backup mirror plates that would fit into these small bodies was a real challenge.There can be no compromise in not keeping with using the proper 1,2,3 Mustang mirror housings or bodies. Upgrading to a different or larger body shape or design i felt was not an option, and would take away from the originality of our year model cars.So the real challenge was to come up with a system or invention that would utilize the '71-'73 mirror bodies and incorporate all working componets to fit.
My approach to this project would be best described as semi professional/ professional. My system is a complete custom, retro setup. As i was working my way through the R&D, i got to thinking how fantastic it would be, if you could just walk into a shop, and buy the whole thing ready made to install and swap out. But finding a company that would tool up and take on manufacturing a limited number of these power mirrors would be hard. Most companies these days are strongly profit driven, and are not interested in tooling up and manufacturing for small numbers of product. Maybe a Chinese company would be interested,or maybe the likes of Scott Drake, who knows. In my invention and designs, i have tried to keep things as simple as possible, however, the end product is by it's own right, a complex setup.Sorry about that folks. In going about this project, my overall idea of course, was to make these mirrors for myself to enjoy, but to also give back to the world and share what i have done with others, so they too can benefit and enjoy having power mirrors at their disposal if they want to as well. In this sense, i have targeted the '71'73 Mustang forum first. I am not interested in going to the trouble of taking out patents for any of my specific designs.This project is not about making monies or profits for me. If anyone wants to copy what i have done,and profit from it, or even invent and build a better mouse trap, well that's all OK with me. I also thought hard about finding local fabricating companies, and getting them to reproduce some of the parts that go into my system, so i could sell them on without making profit, to any Forum members who would be interested in buying the parts for their own benefit to make life easier in getting this system together. I decided against doing this, as i did not want to go down that road of starting to run a small business to manufacture, sell and distribute parts around the world. So in that sense then, my aim or end plan is to pass on all the details necessary for anyone to reproduce this whole setup that i have invented and end up with a good working system, having power mirrors for themselves to enjoy as well.
It also occurred to me that because this system is completely retro, there will be some 1,2,3 owners who are serious about keeping their Mustangs very original, factory, and true to the period. I understand and respect this, so these power mirrors would probably be not for you i guess in that sense. Also, my invention is fairly complex, and is not a walk in the park to replicate and reproduce. It also requires a medium to high skill level to produce yourself. This well might put some people off going to the effort and trouble of trying to reproduce these mirrors for themselves. I understand that as well and would respect you if you thought the whole project was just too much for you, you lost interest, and you walked away. If you find that you are not sure or feel somewhat hesitant about taking on this project, then my advice to you would be to wait until you catch up and read most of my upcoming tutorials before you go out and start spending money on the project. Doing that will help make up your mind if this project is for you. From the money side of things, switching to power mirrors won't be cheap.This depends though, on what approach you take to the project. For example, if you were to do all the labor work yourself, and just went out and bought the parts and materials to do the whole job,then that would be the cheapest way to go, and your costs on that basis would be around $1,000.00 American.But the cost outlays go up when you (A), sub out any labor to pros to take care of, and (B),you have to go out and buy some tools that you may not have to carry off the project.
As i said, depending on your personal skills levels, you might well end up subbing out some of the work involved to other more qualified people,like spray painting or doing the auto electrics, thus adding to the overall costs of the whole project. So the wider your skills base is, the cheaper the whole project will be for you, the less, more expensive. If you gave the whole job to a professional company to do, it would not end up being a cheap exercise for you when completed.I feel a lot of the work involved is very DIY and manageable. You'll just need time, interest, effort and patience.You will also need to tool up to some extent to carry out some of the work needed. I will discuss that later on as to what's needed there. In my own personal case, one of my weak areas is auto electrics. I teamed up with a pro auto electrics guy to climb on board with my research and doing the final electrical install.That didn't come cheap for me, but in my case it was something i just had to do to make a success of the invention. Everything else concerning the project, i handled myself.
It is my intention to follow up with several part, detailed tutorials explaining everything as to accurately reproduce this setup for yourself. This will include technical detailed descriptions, drawings with accurate measurements, photos, and shopping lists of what to buy and where to buy it.
The good news, is that my invention is suitable for all 123 Mustangs that may have original factory mirrors, or new repro 1,2,3 mirrors as well.With my system, you have options as to which way you want to go, but there are limitations with this also. That will be explained in more detail later on. To kick off, i have put together a small video to show off the finished product or result of what i have come up with. My system works, and should prove to be reliable, sturdy, and give good service. If any parts do wear out or play up, my design will let you access that part and replace it without too much drama or fuss, as all components are knockdown and accessible. And the big plus with my system, is if you want to remove my power mirrors,and go back to your original manual mirror system, you can, as you will not have damaged or destroyed any of your car in the process of installing my mirrors.
I have enjoyed the challenge of this project, and am proud of what i have come up with in many ways.If you are like me, and have a good desire to have and enjoy power mirrors for your Mustang, then this IS the way to go for you. Also, you may have some technical questions straight up for me to answer. Could i ask Forum folk to wait until i start posting the tutorials on the project, as they will cover and explain all or most of what's involved and how i went about it. All i want to mention right now is that my invention is based on using 1,2,3 Mustang repro mirror housings, Ford Thunderbird mirror motors, and a Ford Mustang mirror switch. All details will be revealed later on in my follow up tutorials.
So inventing these power mirrors has been a labor of love for me, and i am pleased and proud to pass onto the rest of the world what i have come up with as well. I sincerely hope that if you decide to tread my path, and get a set together for yourself, you will enjoy and add to your Mustang driving pleasure experience as well.
POST EDIT: Sorry folks, i made a little mistake in my video. I said, click the mirror switch to the right for the drivers side mirror control. I should have said click to the right for the PASSENGERS side mirror control.
Many thanks,
Greg.::thumb::
