The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop locating holes for side mirrors

I have new mirror brackets that mount to the fender / upper cowl area. My truck does not have the holes where original mirrors were mounted. I need to locate and drill holes for them now. I searched the past posts regarding this. Most everybody agreed that it's best to drill from the inside out. I agree, but I did see where Brad Allen had a template that was supplied with the original mirror bracket. That template would make this a much easier task. Is there someplace where I could get a correct copy of one of those templates?

There should be holes for mirror mounts on the brace behind the upper cowl on both driver and passenger sides. The way to do that is to take a punch that fills the hole and has a sharp point and use it to mark the cowl outer panel, then center punch and drill from outside. A lot easier than trying to drill from inside.

If you are talking about the bolt holes on the cab cowl left and right of the left and right A pillars then my experience has been that if you look from the inner corners inside the cab you’ll see holes in the angles located between the A pillars and the firewall. At least this is were are located on the 1948 cabs.

There is a metal support bracket underneath that area of the cowl which you can see from inside of the cab. There are holes in that bracket for the mirror bolts to pass through.
I wrap enough electrical tape around the end of an automatic center punch to fill the hole in the bracket to center the punch, then push on the handle of the punch until does its thing and leaves a pimple in the paint on the outside. I then convert the pimple into a dimple and drill the hole from the outside.

Well, it seems that you guys are unanimous, so I'll contort my old body again and follow your instructions. It makes sense.

I used 52 Carl's idea about using a tape wrap to center the punch in the bracket holes. It worked well. I got all 4 holes drilled and now it's off to find some appropriate bolts for the mirror brackets. For what you pay for the brackets, you'd think that the bolts would be included. Oh well. Thanks guys.

"Pimples to Dimples" Sounds pretty fun said Dr. Pimple Popper. Hope this works out for you Mike. Will say, looking for the bracket on the passenger side, with the glove box in place was a challenge, but I found it. For me it would be much easier if the glovebox was removed.