The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts West Coast Mirror Refurbishing

Alright fellow big bolters, how many of you have refinished the big west coast style mirrors on your bolts and how did you go about it? Specifically, gently disassembling it all.

I got the new uprights onto the log bed and my current mirrors now need adjusted outward for proper viewing, but 56 years of weather, new paint, and corrosion have them seized. I've been hitting them for weeks with Kroil and have gotten the adjuster nuts to loosen and back off, but the actual pipes are seized. The nuts on the top and bottom of the mirrors are also seized and I stopped trying after snapping the lower driver mirror nut off. Not happy about that one.

So, shy of a literal bath tub full of penetrating oil at 200F for a week, any advice on getting these suckers apart to polish, refinish, seal, and remount as actual adjustable? I didn't turn up anything with the search function.

That said, do they even make parts for these anymore?

I ended up buying a set of stainless, heated, lighted west coast mirrors on Craigslist, not exactly what the truck came with but they look good.

So, how about a picture?

Ed

By request, here's a few photos. As you can see, all the adjuster nuts are loosened and backed off, but the pipes are stuck together. Also can see the snapped off bold on the lower section with the zip ties now holding it together. Passenger side is the same condition sans snapped bolt.

I've hit all these joints almost daily for 2 weeks now with kroil to try and break thru, but no such luck. Glass is in great condition, but all the metal needs blasted and recoated.

I'm digging around now for possible replacement to price out that option. Any recommendation on vendors to look at?

Search the big auction site for "west coast mirrors chevy" and you should find several NOS sets for sale. They come up fairly often...

Big Rig truck stops should also modern replacements...

Mike B

Try heat.🛠

Those look to me like aftermarket mirrors already. I would not have any qualms about just replacing them completely. Other than re-angling the mirror heads, those on my 69 T-50 do not have any adjustments. All the struts and arms are fixed length, they were made exactly for the truck. I am quite certain they are factory original, it's a fire truck with 6,000 miles.

Mac, those are the correct accessory mirrors...there are a few NOS examples on the big auction site still in the Chevrolet boxes.

Mike B

I believe you, they are just quite different from mine.

Ahhh that is a very valid point and a thought that had not yet crossed my mind. Could be the reason I find little to no info/discussion on them anywhere. If this is the case, then I feel no shame in marring them up and possibly replacing.


That is my next step. A final attempt to persuade them apart with the acetylene torch. Before I opted for that route I figured I would post up to see if anyone else had gone thru this before and had any secrets they may share. Ill break out the big guns this weekend and see where I can get with it. If they break they break, im hearing that replacements are not a big deal.



Appreciate the info. Ill start digging around and see what I can find.

Lots of PB Blaster, some heat, some patience, lots of time in front of the sand blast cabinet and too much money. Thats what it took to restore my big bolt mirrors. I got real lucky and found the actual mirrors on the "big auction site" as Mike says and they were at least close to the mirrors that were on the truck when I bought it. I doubt they were original at that point. My frames has several layers of rusty crusty paint on them but they came out very clean. Obviously I went to the expense of chroming mine but painted would have looked great too. For me, I like these original brackets with the additional supports etc., that's why I went all out.
I think yours will clean up good too.
Good luck.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/uwqZF6DCC2GmiZS9A

I cleaned and painted exactly that set of mirrors about 20 years ago. I got them apart with a torch and vicegrips, then sanded and painted them. They looked good but I wanted heated mirror heads and got a set of stainless, heated mirrors and brackets from NAPA that were a Mack replacement.

[img]https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...oad/Number/20806/filename/Chicken_AK.jpg[/img]

My 51 mirrors were rough just like that . I found Raneys in Florida bought stainless arms ,they have 3 adjustable lengths with several choices on mirror heads.The clamps I made out of sheet stainless with stainless bolts and stainless acorn nuts the trouble will come in trying to keep sharp edges away on your clamps. The truck had brackets already on the doorsmirrors are solid and dont vibrate nice view of duals and the road. Also great to hang onto out there in the air flow like they say doesn,t get any better than that!

I'm also a PB blaster guy. Try using a heat gun instead of a torch and give them a good rap, with a rubber hammer when they are not. Try and knock them in and out. Be forceful but patient. They'll brake loose eventually.

What year is your truck? How about some more pictures of the truck.

Good luck

I wanted to close the loop on this now for anyone that pops into this thread via google or the such looking for a similar answer.

In short, without risking substantial damage, even with heat, the adjustment pipes were not going to move. Years of rain, road grime, and rust took its toll. I hit a local big truck junk yard and found an old 80's ford tri-axle dump with a set of "universal" west coast mirrors and grabbed them along with a good looking set of mirrors from a modern Kenworth (didn't want mirrors with a Ford logo on my Chevrolet).

Now, most "universal" mirrors work best for trucks with flat doors or slightly curved doors like the 80's squarebody Chevy's. They don't direct fit onto these older big bolts with the big girl curves. They can easily be made to work, but it requires all new mounting holes be drilled in the doors, so factor in body work to seal/finish the old holes and then drill new ones. Now, some trucks had/have the typical style with the diagonal support running from the bottom of the mirror to the upper door mount, but my truck runs that diagonal from the bottom of the mirror to the lower door with a 3rd set of mounting holes. I neither wanted to get into body work yet nor wanted to punch more holes into my darn near pristine doors, so I did it differently.

I opted to quickly modified my originals by cutting the original C60 mirrors from their brackets, taking the outer extension from the universal set and mounting it in place of the original mirror, then using the universal mounting kit straps to mount up the Kenworth mirrors to the extension. This way I didn't have to fight the stuck adjustment pipes or modify the doors and without needing to adjust any of the original mirror extensions, I gained 8" outward stance and the ability to now fully adjust the mirrors into whatever configuration, angle, or tilt that I desire. A quick hit with the wire brush, fresh primer and paint, mounted with silicone sealer against the door body to keep out water, and then some grounding straps for the antennas, and she is perfect and actually looks better than original.

Plus, these Kenworth mirrors (which cost my $30) are heated units......soooo no more wiping down mirrors every cold dewy morning! And no, the mirrors were not painted on the truck. The grey discoloration around where the brackets meet the doors is primer sealer from some rust touch-ups from the brackets leaking water into the doors prior to rebuild.

And to Gulfsuper, I have a separate thread going for more truck info to keep this one on topic.

On my 58, I replaced the ones that were rusted solid (and not adjusted where I needed them to be) with a piece of 1/2" electrical conduit, squished the ends, and rounded with a grinder. I don't care if the arms are adjustable, 99% of the time, I am the one driving the truck and never need to change where the mirrors are, if I need to, just twisting the mirror itself works fine.

Are they show quality? NOPE, but neither is my truck, it is a working truck

Hey HFfarms, there's that '64 C60 I like!...lol... Your mirrors turned out great, so did the bed from what I can see of it.

Totally understand, my truck is the same, she's a worker. My whole reason for needing adjustment in the first place was to see out around the new bed I built. With the log bunk uprights, it is significantly wider than the original grain box (still within DOT regs) and no amount of tilting could see out around those uprights. And I don't judge on the conduit, thats called "making due with what you have" out here on the farm, and its just the way of life for most of us.



Appreciate it DoubleDingo. There are many more photos to come as this girl goes back to weekly duty and annual logging over the winter months.