Follow up on Norm's Mirror idea

[James_Douglas]

A number of us have complained about outside rear view mirrors. So, here is a thought.

What if we collectively came up with a arm length and mirror that would work on all of our cars. I mean arm length and mirror size and style. Something that would fit the vintage of our cars.

Then we make up a few sets of cowl parts, one to fit each body style. We build the arms and bases to that they screw into the base.

Then we have a bunch of sets made up.

Anyone interested ?

James

[Norm's Coupe]

James,

I'm going ahead with my Sally Hill California style mirrors. I know they will work out good because I tried them.

As for your idea, it sounds good for people that don't want the modern type mirrors on the car at all. There's only one small possible flaw in the plan. That's the quantity involved. A good machine shop could knock those out in no time. However, where the flaw comes is that most machine shops will want at least a minimum order of a couple thousand dollars, to make even one run. Since you could probably make about 800 to 1,000 (or more) arms at that price, you'd really have a bundle to get rid of. If you made less, the machine shop cost would be the same, making the arms really expensive (depending on how many were made).

[Young Ed]

They also made 1.1 million p15s so there might be enough of a market for a good mirror. I believe all the cars are similar enough at the front that there wouldn't need to be different ones for each body style.

[Reg Evans]

I'm in as long as the mirrors are at least 6" in diameter.

[Norm's Coupe]

They also made 1.1 million p15s so there might be enough of a market for a good mirror. I believe all the cars are similar enough at the front that there wouldn't need to be different ones for each body style.

But Ed, how many of that number are actually left and either still drivable or being worked on. From that number how many people are going to buy the mirrors, or even want them. Not all of them will buy them. You may be able to sell 1,000 of them, but how long is it going to take and are the people (or individual) investing in the project willing to wait for a year or more (or longer) to get their investment back, for the little return they may receive from it. Each month you hold onto the excess inventory adds cost to the mirrors. If nothing else, the amount of money that would have been received from interest payments the investor could have received, if the money was left where it was before the investment.

Even doing it the way James mentioned, the mirrors are going to be expensive to make. A good machine shop is not going to accept just a drawing on a piece of paper to make them by. They will want a blueprint. Then you not only have the cost of the arms being made at the machine shop, but also the cost of chrome plating and polishing. Then the cost of the stainless mirror itself and the assembly of all the parts and packaging. Small orders like this can really rack up the cost per part real fast.

[Don Coatney]

Norm;

You are out:mad:

James;

I am in:D

[RHDSP15C]

I don't know what the fuss is about, I bought a set from Andy - they are cheap, they look good and they work just fine.

[Young Ed]

I've got a drivers side cowl mount with a broken mirror head if someone needs it.

[James_Douglas]

I have a set of cowl mirrors and they are next to worthless on my big body. The Pax side you can not even see.

If you look at these links, you can see a mirror that was optional for the Deosto. Longer arm and larger mirror.

Better photo here: http://ads.seriouswheels.com/listing/263/1948_Desoto_Suburban_Station_WagonBrown.html