T-top Daytona Exterior mirror removal help

[83scamp]

OK, I posting this hoping for some help from anybody who has restored a T-top car. Is there a way to fish the power mirror wires out of the door without removing the brace C&C rivets in there when they modify the doors? I have the mirror loose, but the connector is way too big to come out the opening, and I can't even get to the connector to unplug it. It's fastened to the front of that reinforcement somehow.

I hope somebody can guide me through this so I don't have to drill out all of those rivets just to get a mirror off...

[83scamp]

Bump.


Anybody? 38 views, but no suggestions?


I may just end up masking the mirror in place & spraying around it. I really don't want to drill that brace out...

[jonnymopar]

Aaaaaaaand... subscribed. I went through this two years ago trying to replace my passenger side mirror and found the same thing you did. Aside from taking a picture of the harness for reference and actually de-pinning the connector wire-by-wire, I can't figure it out. I even tried removing the 3 screws on the bottom of the mirror holding the "guts" in place to see if there was a second connector inside the mirror assembly. One of the screws is stuck pretty good, so I never got that far.

[83scamp]

Aaaaaaaand... subscribed. I went through this two years ago trying to replace my passenger side mirror and found the same thing you did. Aside from taking a picture of the harness for reference and actually de-pinning the connector wire-by-wire, I can't figure it out. I even tried removing the 3 screws on the bottom of the mirror holding the "guts" in place to see if there was a second connector inside the mirror assembly. One of the screws is stuck pretty good, so I never got that far.

Well, at least I know I'm not alone in this.... You sort of confirmed I'm not just having brain block...

It's been interesting taking this car apart. C&C did a real hack job on these cars. All that black trim is designed to cover that up. They didn't even bother to de-burr the edges they sawzall'd off!!! It's pretty obvious these cars were slammed through the conversion process as fast as possible...

[jonnymopar]

It's pretty obvious these cars were slammed through the conversion process as fast as possible...

Absolutely! Pop rivets and RTV everywhere. The number of sins I saw when I replaced my headliner a few months ago... oh man... But if the thing is still in one piece after almost 30 years, I can't nitpick too much.

You realize that seeing photos of your car once it's all painted is going to cost me a lot of money right? ;)

[83scamp]

Absolutely! Pop rivets and RTV everywhere. The number of sins I saw when I replaced my headliner a few months ago... oh man... But if the thing is still in one piece after almost 30 years, I can't nitpick too much.

You realize that seeing photos of your car once it's all painted is going to cost me a lot of money right? ;)

Yeah, and what's under the headliner is only the beginning! After removing the black trim, it literally looks like they took a sawzall to the window frames on the doors. They didn't even clean up the cuts! They still had rough edges!!!

I hope my build is an inspiration to others. These cars aren't that tough to save, if it's half way decent to start with. I'm pretty lucky on this one. It looks bad, but outside of a few dents, it's all just typical 80's paint issues. This one is an easy fix compared to the Scamp...

[iangoround]

Yeah, and what's under the headliner is only the beginning! After removing the black trim, it literally looks like they took a sawzall to the window frames on the doors. They didn't even clean up the cuts! They still had rough edges!!!


Tell me about it. The doors on mine are uuuuugggggly under that trim. Under the headliner, someone goofed putting one of the reinforcing plates up with rivets and pulled some out, so there are like 5 rivets all right next to each other trying to get the one plate to stay up. Looks like they eventually said screw it and just left it a little loose.


As for the mirrors...the idiot who started working on my car before I came in and did it myself just cut the mirror harness off. I don't remember now if there is another connector inside the mirror housing or not, but it's not the worst thing in the world to fish wires back through the door frame and solder them.