Mirrors With The Doors Off
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JK Enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2019
Posts: 109
Likes: 10
From: Houston Missouri
Mirrors With The Doors Off
It has finally quit raining here in South Central Missouri long enough to remove the top and doors.
Doing some looking, and research I first installed the Smitty Built 7618 6" Round Mirrors that bolt to the Windshield Pillars. This mirror is not terrible for the application. It takes a little adjusting to get it set as it will torque a little when you get your driving speed up on the road. Being a 6" Round Mirror it does not block much view. The mirror does not look bad at all to me either. I did need to re tighten the mounting bolts a couple times. For the money this is not a bad mirror.
Doing additional research I discovered what I believe is the ultimate Mirror set up for "no door" driving. TieTech Off Road makes a JK Mirror Relocation Bracket that uses stock JK Mirrors.
For Mirrors I went with the Quadratec JK Replacement "Manual Adjustment" Mirror set. This looked to be the most economical factory style mirror with good reviews. Be fore warned they DO NOT COME with mounting bolts. You will either need to get (4) FOUR Mirror Bolts from Jeep M8 X 52mm 1.25 Pitch. Or do as I did and pick up 4 each M8 x 50mm Bolts with Flat Washers and Lock Washers from the hardware or auto parts store. I planned on using Jeep Mirror Bolts, however the Sullivan dealerships parts dept was closed on Saturday, and the one in Rolla did not have them in stock. I did pick up a couple nice JEEP hats however. (NOTE: I did not drive that far looking for Mirror Bolts. We delivered the wife's horse trailer to Jim's Motors in Cuba for Warranty work. I hit both dealerships while close by.)
Bolt the mirrors to the Relocation Brackets.
I then masked the area around the bolt heads off and painted the mounting bolts before installation on the Jeep, as they were not Stainless Steel or Coated. With luck this will prevent rust.
The Relocation Bracket's bolts on in Two Locations. You loosen the Center Door Hinge Bolt on the upper door hinge and slip the relocation bracket attachment point behind the bolt. You then align the bracket on top of the Door Hinge Pin Hole and install the provided Stainless Steel bolt up through the Hinge Pin Hole and tighten up the bracket. You then go back and tighten the Center Bolt on the door hinge, then finish tightening the stainless steel bolt.
Adjust the mirrors, and you are completed. I took a test drive to Summersville to pick up a Pizza. ZERO vibration or movement in the mirrors. The rear view in the mirrors was pretty much what you would expect with factory mirrors mounted on the doors. This Relocation Bracket looks to mount the mirror in pretty much the same location as when the mirror is mounted on the door. I am totally happy with the finished product.
To remove you simply loosen the center door hinge bolt and remove the bolt in the Door Hinge Pin Hole, and remove the mirror for storage. Re-tighten the center hinge bolt and you are done.
I decided to install Delrin replacement door hinge bushings while I was at it. This went well, and was much easier that shown on You Tube. I did tape off Hinge ONE to protect the paint. I installed the provided Liner Removal tool in the liner hole on the bottom side and tapped out with a hammer. It came right out with little resistance. I skipped taping the next Three and just drove them out. A good idea is to clean the hole in the hinge out before installing the new liners. A 45acp Pistol Brush worked pretty well for this application. The new liners went in quite a ways by hand, and I tapped them in the rest of the way with the hammer.
I added another improvement while working on the removed doors. I got a pair of American Outlaw Door Pin Guides from Quadratec. These simply screw into the Upper Door Pin Retainer Screw Hole. I plan to use Blue Lock-Tite and leave the Pins in the doors permanently. I will reinstall the lower hinge pin retainers ONLY when I reinstall the doors for the Winter. If you have never removed the doors, or more correctly Re-Installed the Doors you probably have no idea why you need the Door Pin Guide's. This guide lets you get the upper Hinge Pin started separately from the lower hinge pin. The doors are heavy, and the less time you spend getting the pins aligned the better. The first time I reinstalled a door I figured out why the Alignment Pins were a very good idea.
Bob R
Doing some looking, and research I first installed the Smitty Built 7618 6" Round Mirrors that bolt to the Windshield Pillars. This mirror is not terrible for the application. It takes a little adjusting to get it set as it will torque a little when you get your driving speed up on the road. Being a 6" Round Mirror it does not block much view. The mirror does not look bad at all to me either. I did need to re tighten the mounting bolts a couple times. For the money this is not a bad mirror.
Doing additional research I discovered what I believe is the ultimate Mirror set up for "no door" driving. TieTech Off Road makes a JK Mirror Relocation Bracket that uses stock JK Mirrors.
For Mirrors I went with the Quadratec JK Replacement "Manual Adjustment" Mirror set. This looked to be the most economical factory style mirror with good reviews. Be fore warned they DO NOT COME with mounting bolts. You will either need to get (4) FOUR Mirror Bolts from Jeep M8 X 52mm 1.25 Pitch. Or do as I did and pick up 4 each M8 x 50mm Bolts with Flat Washers and Lock Washers from the hardware or auto parts store. I planned on using Jeep Mirror Bolts, however the Sullivan dealerships parts dept was closed on Saturday, and the one in Rolla did not have them in stock. I did pick up a couple nice JEEP hats however. (NOTE: I did not drive that far looking for Mirror Bolts. We delivered the wife's horse trailer to Jim's Motors in Cuba for Warranty work. I hit both dealerships while close by.)
Bolt the mirrors to the Relocation Brackets.
I then masked the area around the bolt heads off and painted the mounting bolts before installation on the Jeep, as they were not Stainless Steel or Coated. With luck this will prevent rust.
The Relocation Bracket's bolts on in Two Locations. You loosen the Center Door Hinge Bolt on the upper door hinge and slip the relocation bracket attachment point behind the bolt. You then align the bracket on top of the Door Hinge Pin Hole and install the provided Stainless Steel bolt up through the Hinge Pin Hole and tighten up the bracket. You then go back and tighten the Center Bolt on the door hinge, then finish tightening the stainless steel bolt.
Adjust the mirrors, and you are completed. I took a test drive to Summersville to pick up a Pizza. ZERO vibration or movement in the mirrors. The rear view in the mirrors was pretty much what you would expect with factory mirrors mounted on the doors. This Relocation Bracket looks to mount the mirror in pretty much the same location as when the mirror is mounted on the door. I am totally happy with the finished product.
To remove you simply loosen the center door hinge bolt and remove the bolt in the Door Hinge Pin Hole, and remove the mirror for storage. Re-tighten the center hinge bolt and you are done.
I decided to install Delrin replacement door hinge bushings while I was at it. This went well, and was much easier that shown on You Tube. I did tape off Hinge ONE to protect the paint. I installed the provided Liner Removal tool in the liner hole on the bottom side and tapped out with a hammer. It came right out with little resistance. I skipped taping the next Three and just drove them out. A good idea is to clean the hole in the hinge out before installing the new liners. A 45acp Pistol Brush worked pretty well for this application. The new liners went in quite a ways by hand, and I tapped them in the rest of the way with the hammer.
I added another improvement while working on the removed doors. I got a pair of American Outlaw Door Pin Guides from Quadratec. These simply screw into the Upper Door Pin Retainer Screw Hole. I plan to use Blue Lock-Tite and leave the Pins in the doors permanently. I will reinstall the lower hinge pin retainers ONLY when I reinstall the doors for the Winter. If you have never removed the doors, or more correctly Re-Installed the Doors you probably have no idea why you need the Door Pin Guide's. This guide lets you get the upper Hinge Pin started separately from the lower hinge pin. The doors are heavy, and the less time you spend getting the pins aligned the better. The first time I reinstalled a door I figured out why the Alignment Pins were a very good idea.
Bob R
Last edited by Bob Roach; Jun 14, 2020 at 03:44 PM.
JK Junkie
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 3,499
Likes: 162
From: brick, nj
Can you share a pic of your installed mirrors? How much did it cost for the project? I had the round mirrors for two seasons and I thought they sucked. Very limited visibility. I just replaced them with rectangle shaped ones that have a slight convex mirror. Wow, what a significant improvement. So much more field of vision compared to the round ones.
Last edited by rob_engineer; Jun 14, 2020 at 06:36 AM.
Thread Starter
JK Enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2019
Posts: 109
Likes: 10
From: Houston Missouri
Rob I believe the Tie Tech Off Road Relocation Brackets were around $90 for the pair. Not sure about Free Shipping. The Factory Replica Manual Adjustment Mirrors were $109.99 with Free Shipping from Quadratec.
You will also need to round up Four M8 X 50mm bolts to attach the Mirrors to the Relocation Bracket. I had enough clearance to clear the Bolt Head, Flat Washer, and Lock Washer with out touching the dash.
I will need to do more research on Pictures. When we went to Windows 10 the computer quit automatically down loading to Pictures. It now goes to some other program that is about impossible to retrieve pictures from. So far I have not figured out how to fix this. I was also using Tiny Pictures for a host which has went away also. I need to get this all figured out once again to post pictures.
Bob R
You will also need to round up Four M8 X 50mm bolts to attach the Mirrors to the Relocation Bracket. I had enough clearance to clear the Bolt Head, Flat Washer, and Lock Washer with out touching the dash.
I will need to do more research on Pictures. When we went to Windows 10 the computer quit automatically down loading to Pictures. It now goes to some other program that is about impossible to retrieve pictures from. So far I have not figured out how to fix this. I was also using Tiny Pictures for a host which has went away also. I need to get this all figured out once again to post pictures.
Bob R
Super Moderator
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 1,088
Likes: 145
From: NJ
Here are some odd shots with the Die Tech brackets. I ran them for years before switching to mirror movers. It's a stock mirror in the stock location, can't do much better in terms of visibility. I only changed because I switch between doors/no doors/fabric doors a lot and even though it's just two bolts, it gets old after a few years.
