Hot Rods Rearview mirror ~ revisited

Now that the days are shorter and it's getting dark much earlier I realize driving home tonight that the original rear view mirror in my sedan is very inadequate, it's fine in the day light hours but all the new cars with their laser beam ultra bright lights darn near blind me when they are following me.

Does anyone reproduce a vintage looking day/night mirror that doesn't look too out of place in Hamb friendly car & trucks? HRP

 

Wearing sun glasses at nite would be more traditional!

 

Danny, I just readjust the mirror so I have to stretch my neck a bit to look in it. That usually helps, and I let my side views do the brunt of the rear view work. Maybe if you nabbed one out of a late 50s early 60s it Might work without looking to god-awful out of place. Good luck searching, Mitch.

 

look for repops for the original mirrors from the 50s Chevys.

https://www.danchuk.com/ItemForm.aspx?Item=1135

or perhaps you can find one for a Ford.

A new repop might work better than an original that the silver fell off of.

or it might be modern chinese junk.

 

The mirror is one issue, reflections off the flat windshield is another. I notice a big different between my 35 Ford and Model A with the latter having a great deal of reflection.

 

When did they make it legal for headlights to be so bright?

Bob

 

I am convinced that there is a need for super bright head lights AND driving lights so you can see the tail lights of the car in front of you when you are driving a late model car or especially a pick-up truck.
I wouldn't know, I don't own anything that new.

 

Your guess is as good as mine and to me honest I don't remember the lights ever being that bright but since I had cataract surgery everything is brighter. HRP

 

HRP, I have on from the '50s. I acquired two from a guy that wanted everything GONE. Had them resilvered. Only used one. Msg me if you are interested.

Ben

P.S. It is GM but will not hurt the Ford, I promise.

 

I'll second that, but at least I no longer see blue/green halos around lights at night. Another problem might be if your state is like Maryland. They dropped aiming the headlights from the state inspection. The other thing I don't like about the new headlights is they have a 'day/night' line, so when you are on a hilly road at night your sight distance comes up way short as you approach the bottom of the dip. The light from an old incandescent headlight just seemed to go out and fade away.

 

I used a repro rearview mirror on my Model A windshield frame that has the mirror glass beveled around the edges. Now when a car comes up behind me at night and the angle is just right the prism effect of the beveled glass makes the mirror light up in red and blue colors. I pulled over because I thought I was getting stopped one night only to see rice powered sedan go blowing past me. Took me a minute to figure out what was happening. Still catches me by surprise every now and then.

 

Part of the night mirror problem at my age is cataracts. Mine aren’t quite bad enough to qualify for Medicare, but the wife’s were. She reports a huge difference at night.

This won’t help for the sedan, but might work for the wagon. I’m using it in my 55 bird in place of the original. Bit larger, and stipples on the back, but same mount.

https://www.macsautoparts.com/ford_...VUWV-Ch2zXgshEAQYAyABEgIX4vD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

I do the same, then follow them with my high beams on, gives them the same effect, and a HUGE savings on buying my own BMW. Bob

 

Headlights are a bit brighter, yes, but a lot of them are much smaller than older designs. That is, the light is concentrated in a smaller patch, hence far more glare for the observer.

Also, more SUVs etc. percentage-wise means a greater likelihood of elbow-height low-beams shining quite brightly down your neck.

 

That looks like the same mount as my '59 Ford and I have a tough time with cars behind me at night too. If it would thread up to my stock mount, it would be worth it. Do you know what the female thread is? Mine looks like a 5/16-24 fine thread. I have thought of adapting a later glass-mount mirror to fit.

 

Can you just tint the rear glass?

 

Thats a great idea. it should be easy to apply the aftermarket tint to the old mirrors.

 

I believe one of the issues with the new projector headlights is the color range. The household LED bulbs are rated by the color scale so those around 2700 -3000k are like the old light bulbs for color as the range climbs the lights get whiter and roam into a blue white. I find the intense blue white bulbs are the worse as they are harder on the eyes and it takes longer to recover. We travel on a busy 2 lane highway with a lot of transport traffic. About 3/4's have a friendly color with their projector headlamps but others are the dreaded blue white. The intense blue white seems to be in the new GM trucks and I seem to be at eye level with them in the SUV. There should be a limit to the upper white color range on headlights for safety in my opinion.

 

'A gentleman does not motor about after dark.' - Joseph Lucas.

 

Me,too. I no longer see the rainbow halos, but boy those things are not only bright, but poorly aimed. Cops don't seem to care.

 

Here's a couple of pics of an aftermarket inside rear view mirror attachment that swings down and provides a "sunglasses) effect to the mirror. Appears to be made out of a gray tinted plexiglass type of thin plastic.
It works great on my '37 Chevy stock mirror. It attaches with a simple spring holding it in place. Maybe you could fab something simple like it or find an original ?

Front by TagMan, on Flickr
Side by TagMan, on Flickr
In place by TagMan, on Flickr

 

'A gentleman does not motor about after dark.' - Joseph Lucas.
True words for English Cars

 

Here's an original aftermarket mirror with a wind up clock featuring a Ford logo on the face. I had the mirror re-silvered and the clock works cleaned.

 

Bob, I’m out of town and can’t measure the mirror threads right now. If someone with a 55 ford would chime in, I’m pretty sure the bird and car mount are the same.

 

Yep the mirror from behind i can adjust but the glare off the flat windshield is killer. Old trucker trick is look just a little to the right when car with bright headlights comes at you. You dont get blasted straight on.

 

I thought about this when working on the '28 Tudor. I might go with the rear window pull down shade that all the stockers run. Even if you have a day/night mirror in there the light just bounces around and you see reflections in the windshield.

That would mean I need to run a passenger side mirror and be able to actually see it.

 

I just use a modern glue on day/ night mirror. Sometimes I think that we overthink this "era correct" nonsense on safety items.

 

My 32 OEM rear view glass was tinted then silvered . The replacement that I now have in there is beveled and clear glass . It is nowhere near the quality of 32 OEM . The flat glass is a killer on night driving , my Power Wagon is a later model , with flat glass a car or truck behind you makes it look as there are about 10 behind you because of reflections . Once they get near the old red wagon is so high headlights are gone in reflections .

 

Thanks. I'm sure someone else sells them and there is a better picture. If you can find out, great.

 

I have done this once with decent results... Tint your rear view mirror....

All the new car companies are trying to get the "highest" saftey rating and headlights is part of the thing that figures into that crap, so everyone is getting sharks with lasers on their head headlights. The lower you sit the worse it is.... my old sedan i just sold had everyone's lights going through my back window... Now with the coupe its not as bad, my old truck I dont have an issue but I tinted the windows to try to cool it off inside....