How to Remove Mirror From Its Housing

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Peter Silten
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How to Remove Mirror From Its Housing

#1 Post by Peter Silten »

What is the best way to remove the mirror from its housing. I was able to get a thin blade around the mirror's perimeter but the mirror doesn't budge. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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Mike Wilson
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Re: How to Remove Mirror From Its Housing

#2 Post by Mike Wilson »

Just guessing that the glass is glued into the housing. I have a very thin flexible blade knife I used in the Talbot Berlin mirror. I'll take a pic of it.

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Peter Silten
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Re: How to Remove Mirror From Its Housing

#3 Post by Peter Silten »

Mike, you are the answer man. I managed to get a thin blade around the edge of the mirror but the mirror doesn't budge. How do I proceed from there? I applied some heat to the housing but that didn't do a thing.

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Mike Wilson
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Re: How to Remove Mirror From Its Housing

#4 Post by Mike Wilson »

Pics of the thin-bladed flexible knife.
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Martin Benade
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Re: How to Remove Mirror From Its Housing

#5 Post by Martin Benade »

Isn’t that the style where the metal housing is lightly rolled over the bevel? I’m pretty sure the glass is trapped.
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Peter Silten
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Re: How to Remove Mirror From Its Housing

#6 Post by Peter Silten »

It is, but I have managed to push the edge back away from the glass and the mirror doesn't budge. It must also be glued into place.

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Mike Wilson
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Re: How to Remove Mirror From Its Housing

#7 Post by Mike Wilson »

If it's glued, maybe slightly heating the housing with a hair dryer or heat gun and wicking in a solvent would dissolve the glue?

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Peter Silten
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Re: How to Remove Mirror From Its Housing

#8 Post by Peter Silten »

I tried heating the housing with a heat gun but it didn't do anything.

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Mike Wilson
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Re: How to Remove Mirror From Its Housing

#9 Post by Mike Wilson »

I would guess that you would need to get it very hot to melt any adhesive. That's why I suggested something to dissolve any adhesive. Heck, even nail polish remover might work. Just keep any solvent away from the day/night plastic tab.

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Greg Bryan
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Re: How to Remove Mirror From Its Housing

#10 Post by Greg Bryan »

I talked with Victor Miles some years ago about having my mirror restored. For those who don’t know, Victor does incredible concours level restorations on many components.
He said he would need two mirrors to get the job done, one being a donor for the glass and your original. I assume he cut the donor glass out to have it resilvered and was able to get it back into the original mirror body after breaking out the original glass and restoring the body.
I ended up buying the excellent reproduction from Stoddard
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Peter Silten
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Re: How to Remove Mirror From Its Housing

#11 Post by Peter Silten »

I am sure at this point Victor has patterns for the various mirrors he is asked to replace. I contacted Victor but he said he is swamped with work. I suppose one could break the mirror glass to get it out and then have a replacement made by creating a facsimile made out of a thin cardboard or some other material to use as a guide.

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Mike Wilson
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Re: How to Remove Mirror From Its Housing

#12 Post by Mike Wilson »

That's not a bad idea, Peter.

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Dave Erickson
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Re: How to Remove Mirror From Its Housing

#13 Post by Dave Erickson »

Peter, another approach would be to make a pattern based on the opening, then increase it by some amount, based on your observations. I bet you could come pretty close, probably within the tolerances of mirrors used in the original manufacturing. *then* break the old mirror out using an automatic center punch or similar.

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Re: How to Remove Mirror From Its Housing

#14 Post by Peter Silten »

Thanks Dave. I may give it a try.

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Re: How to Remove Mirror From Its Housing

#15 Post by Dave Erickson »

Peter, thinking about it some more, it would be useful to make two patterns; one as described above and the other of the flat portion of the glass. If they were adhesive film with a backing, you could use one pattern to cut out the glass and the second to grind the relief.

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