Drilled the side view mirrors!
Thread Starter
JK Jedi
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 5,567
Likes: 1
From: So. Cal.
[QUOTE=Choppus;735565]
I doubt it that DC even knows of it to be a problem. Remove the two bolts on the door and take the mirror off. You can see from the inside what you are dealing with. Pour some water in the mirror and see what leaks out. There is a hole for the water to dribble down the side of your Jeep, it is just covered with a gasket. Either cut the gasket or drill the hole.
I doubt it that DC even knows of it to be a problem. Remove the two bolts on the door and take the mirror off. You can see from the inside what you are dealing with. Pour some water in the mirror and see what leaks out. There is a hole for the water to dribble down the side of your Jeep, it is just covered with a gasket. Either cut the gasket or drill the hole.
JK Newbie
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 10
Likes: 0
From: Vancouver, BC
I figured this would be a great, quick mod, and was certain that it would take a lot less time to do than I had already spent reading all 41 pages of replies.
I was wrong, but I highly recommend that anyone considering this mod should do it, and if they live in a rainy area, to do it the way I did, not the 30 second drilling method RubiMon started with...
Some quick info on age, mine is an '08 JK, mfr date 03/08, and I bought it in the middle of September, with 13 km on the odometer. So this jeep sat outside for roughly 6 months before I took her home, and was probably washed once a month. Also, it rains a LOT here. (Vancouver, BC.)
I decided that I would take the mirror brackets off, and simply enlarge the drain vent, and trim the gasket. The first sign of trouble came as I was separating the driver's side mirror from the door bracket. I took out the torx bolt, and it came out BRIGHT RED with rust. Then I had to hammer a screwdriver into the bolt hole to 'break' the mirror leg free of the bracket. (Steel Peg + Aluminum Hole + water = Krazy Glue) when I took the plastic cover off the bracket, I could see that a) the bracket had been often 1/2" full of water, and b) the lower half of the aluminum bracket was CAKED with corrosion, and still wet from the rain storm we had 2-3 days ago.
I used a wirebrush and some emery paper to clean the brackets up to new again, then sprayed both with black tremclad.
While the paint dried, I held a nail in some pliers, and heated it with a blow torch, then melted the moulded drainplugs to be about 1/8" or 3/16" diameter. Finally I notched the gaskets as the pictures on earlier pages showed. (Does this mean my Jeep's a girl now?
)
Once the paint dried, reassembly was a snap. And now, when everyone else's mirrors are falling off in three years, mine will be as fresh as the day they were made.
so to recap for the tl;dr; crowd, TAKE THE MIRRORS OFF TO DO THIS MOD!! I can only imagine what a made-in-'06 '07 JK would look like under the bracket covers. ugh.
I was wrong, but I highly recommend that anyone considering this mod should do it, and if they live in a rainy area, to do it the way I did, not the 30 second drilling method RubiMon started with...
Some quick info on age, mine is an '08 JK, mfr date 03/08, and I bought it in the middle of September, with 13 km on the odometer. So this jeep sat outside for roughly 6 months before I took her home, and was probably washed once a month. Also, it rains a LOT here. (Vancouver, BC.)
I decided that I would take the mirror brackets off, and simply enlarge the drain vent, and trim the gasket. The first sign of trouble came as I was separating the driver's side mirror from the door bracket. I took out the torx bolt, and it came out BRIGHT RED with rust. Then I had to hammer a screwdriver into the bolt hole to 'break' the mirror leg free of the bracket. (Steel Peg + Aluminum Hole + water = Krazy Glue) when I took the plastic cover off the bracket, I could see that a) the bracket had been often 1/2" full of water, and b) the lower half of the aluminum bracket was CAKED with corrosion, and still wet from the rain storm we had 2-3 days ago.
I used a wirebrush and some emery paper to clean the brackets up to new again, then sprayed both with black tremclad.
While the paint dried, I held a nail in some pliers, and heated it with a blow torch, then melted the moulded drainplugs to be about 1/8" or 3/16" diameter. Finally I notched the gaskets as the pictures on earlier pages showed. (Does this mean my Jeep's a girl now?
)Once the paint dried, reassembly was a snap. And now, when everyone else's mirrors are falling off in three years, mine will be as fresh as the day they were made.
so to recap for the tl;dr; crowd, TAKE THE MIRRORS OFF TO DO THIS MOD!! I can only imagine what a made-in-'06 '07 JK would look like under the bracket covers. ugh.
JK Newbie
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
From: Millington, TN
Me Too -- Me Too
Like so many adventurous Jeepsters before me, I drilled my mirrors yesterday. Initially I just enlarged the existing notch and trimmed the gasket; but I was unimpressed by the volume of flow, so I also drilled a hole just above the notch. Based on the logic previously expressed within this thread, I guess my Jeep is now a hermaphrodite. 
Thread Starter
JK Jedi
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 5,567
Likes: 1
From: So. Cal.
Like so many adventurous Jeepsters before me, I drilled my mirrors yesterday. Initially I just enlarged the existing notch and trimmed the gasket; but I was unimpressed by the volume of flow, so I also drilled a hole just above the notch. Based on the logic previously expressed within this thread, I guess my Jeep is now a hermaphrodite.
JK Enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 132
Likes: 0
From: Denver, co
Don't drill, just V-cut the foam gasket
I didn't want to drill my mirrors, so I went the V-cut in the foam route. I had all intentions of drilling later, but it didn't need it. Just put a vertical V-channel in the foam and they take a knife and scrap/v-cut the plastic on the mirror. Might not drain as fast as drilling it, but it drains it by the time I walk back to the garage to get the shammy. Good for me and no holes.
But I sure did! 