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MG MGA - Bullet Rear View Mirrors Revisited

A couple of months ago I started a thread on bullet-shaped rear view mirrors and asked for comments.

Despite all your advice I went ahead and fitted a pair of them. I can now report that my love affair with these mirrors was very short lived and they have now been removed. Fortunately, as part of my experiment, I fitted them to the windscreen posts using the existing bolts, so no damage has been incurred during this brief and unsatisfactory journey. The comments made by you were all totally valid and I list some of them here for anyone else venturing down the same path.

1. The field of view with flat glass is limited. A convex mirror would be the only way to go if I was to persevere.

2. The passenger mirror is a total waste of time unless placed well forward on the wing. Even then the field of view in #1 above is valid. Positioned on the windscreen post it is also partially obstructed by the support strut and further obstructed by the Sidescreen strut.

3. Because of the acute angle from the driving position, the passenger mirror runs out of adjustment. The driver gets only a meaningless blurr in the narrow field of view when moving. Only of any use (perhaps) as a parking aid.

4. The side screens foul the mirrors when closing the doors, knocking the mirrors out of alignment.

5. On the plus side they did look quite nice.


I have now returned to my good old faithful convex mirror on a stem attached to the driver’s side windscreen post.

Amen

Steve
Steve Gyles

I run the 3 1/2" bullets on the race car. Our US massively oversize SUV's and pickups, have huge mirrors. There are adhesive backed 3 1/2" diameter circular convex mirrors available to see around these leviathans- and I use them on the bullet mirrirs.

Not great, but I'm unwilling to compromise style. Suppose it also helps that I have a 4 panel wink in the car...
greg fast

Steve,
Peter Gamble at Hi-Gear engineering (The 5 speed conversion group) produces a rather neat mirror arrangment.

It consists of a bracket which bolts to the windscreen using the orginal bolts. Peter also supplies the mirrors although thee are not the bullit type.

As Peter has a rather nice MGA himself he designed the mirror arrangment so they clear the sidescreens.

Regards...John Bray
J Bray

John

Sounds very much like my 'non-bullet' mirror system that I used most successfully for the past 8 years before experimenting with the bullets. The original is now back in place and, as you say, does not foul the side screens.

Steve
Steve Gyles

This thread was discussed between 05/06/2005 and 09/06/2005

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.