update on '92 stuck mirrors

Hi,



A long time ago I posted here asking about how to fix my mirrors that
wouldn't budge. I was given advice on how to proceed and here's what
happened.

I started with the passenger side. By sticking a screwdriver in a small
slot at the base of the housing the housing popped off its retainer plate,
and allowed me to rotate it revealing two bolts that hold the mirror to the
car door. Removal was that simple. The metal inside the mirror was rusted
and there was a lot of corrosion. That's why the mirror was stuck. I put
the mirror upside down on the work bench and spent a week pouring PB Blaster
into the metal parts but it didn't free it up. Then I reversed it and put
the oil in under the mirror and let gravity pull it down onto the metal
parts inside of the mirror. This didn't work either, so eventually I took a
socket wrench and just went for it. This resulted in snapping the bolt that
held the mirror parts together where all of the corrosion was located.

To get to the inside of the mirror I took off the black plastic retainer
that snaps onto the rim of the housing that holds the mirror. With that
off I could pry the mirror out of the housing and see what was going on
inside. I removed all the metal and cleaned it up on a bench mounted wire
wheel. I had a stainless bolt of about the right length, though it was 2mm
too thin, and used that and reassembled the mirror. It's a bit on the loose
side, but it works.

Because I then knew exactly where the metal parts inside the mirror were, I
was able,

on the driver side, to shot PB Blaster into the housing with the mirror on
the car. I did this every other day for a couple of weeks and got lucky.
It freed up and now it works. This may have worked on the passenger side
had I known how it was put together in the first place.

One caution: My car is white and the penetrating oil is orange and stained
the white paint so be careful that way if you try this. I've used many
different penetrating oils over the years and so far PB Blaster is what has
worked the best.



Alic