Right Mirror
One thing that has bothered me ever since I purchased my truck has been the lack of a mirror on the right side. Traffic in the area where I live is becoming ever more frantic, and it seems like everyone with a little sports or compact car likes to pass slower vehicles just as much on the right as the left. This is especially bad during my morning commute to the office since a portion of the trip in on an Interstate loop around town, and folks have a habit of riding up on my right at ramps and lane drops in an effort to squirt ahead of the pack behind me and to the left.
In an effort to avoid squashing someone on my right, I started to investigate the possibilities of installing a mirror on the right side.
One of the best suggestions that I received came from John Bizel at Midwest Military. His suggestion was to use a mirror arm and bracket off a GMC 2.5 ton truck such as the M-211. He stated that I would have to drill some mounting holes in the truck, and that it likely would interfere with my passenger door's operation when it's window was rolled up, but it sounded like a good start. He didn't have any long mirror arms at the time, but he did have a bracket, so I ordered one along with some other parts that I needed.
A short while later, while pulling a power steering box and bracket off a Ramcharger at a local yard, I noticed a late forties Chevy 1.5 ton flatbed heavily overgrown with vines in the center of the yard. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that it still had the long armed mirror assembly that affixed to the upper left door hinge. Since the mount consisted of a loop that the hinge pin slipped through, it looked like it might work with my bracket where I would be running a bolt through the loop. I pulled the mirror arm off the truck (after asking the owner's son who was helping me to pull the steering box if it would be ok) and added it to my pile of stuff.
After taking the arm home and attaching it to the mirror bracket, I walked around the truck thinking about possibilities off and on for another week...
It occurred to me at one point (likely when at a friend's house helping him with him MG) that I could mount the bracket to the truck using the same bolts that attach the engine side panel located between the fender and the hood. This location would eliminate my having to drill mounting holes in the truck, and would place the mirror arm away from the door and the jerry can. It would also enable me to position the mirror head in a location where I could view it through the portion of the windshield swept by the wiper arm.
In order to attach the bracket in the location that I had spotted, I needed to enlarge the lower bolt hole in the bracket and drill a new hole in the bracket approximately an inch further away from the lower hole than the original second mounting hole. I located this hole by holding the bracket up against the panel where I then marked the location on the bracket with a paint pen.
After mounting the bracket to the truck, I discovered that the mirror arm would not collapse enough for me to position the mirror head just above the jerry can. I ended up taking the arm apart and cutting four inches off the bottom half of the arm with a pipe cutter. After reassembling the arm, I was able to position the mirror head just far enough about the jerry can to enable me to see my blind spot without viewing the top of the can.
I have found this to be an addition to the truck that was well worth the modest cost in materials and labor. I can know see the little cars that previously where hidden just to the right of my rear wheel.
Pictures of the setup can be seen on photo page eleven.