How to fix a loose door mirror.

The left door mirror on my 80 needs repair. The rubber which held the mirror in place tighten has over the years shrunken and harden. The mirror is still in place, but is loose, rattles, and effectively useless to use at lower speeds. It's the reflection surface that is loose. Mirror mount itself is fine.

Is there a good fix other than replacing the mirror, or shimming the gap with something.

Air pressure holds the mirror in place quite well at 70mph and above.

On mine, if you take the mirror off the door, there is a bolt inside the mount that can be tightened up.

squirt silicone into the crack between the glass and the metal and wipe away excess.

Get A Tex Replacement mounting kit. They don't cost much and have all new mounting parts. Or if you have the door panel off; you can use 2 screws with nuts on them.

Or are you talking about the gasket thing around the glass of the mirror????

> Or are you talking about the gasket thing around
> the glass of the mirror????

The gasket thing around the mirror. Time and the elements have shrunk it. I was planning on the squirt silicon technique if there isn't a better one. Just like caulking something in my house I suppose.

The mirror body itself is in good shape. I did have to replace the entire right mirror a few years ago.

At auto parts stores, especially Pep boys they carry a whole slew of replacement glass kits, I'm sure they'll have your size. Inside the kit they usually have little gaskets, some sticky goo, etc. If you don't want to squirt the silicone in the cracks, then try these kits. I've done it twice on my Suburban, both times it worked great.

Oh, sorry, I just re-read, and misunderstood what was loose.

This is a maybe. I have found that if you dump a bunch of McGuire's Vinyl and Plastic Cleaner into a can and then put parts in it, they tend to puff up. At least the Brit rubber ones. Possibly it would do the same for your mirror surround. Overnight minimum if you are going to check, and I would like to know your results.
Otherwise, you need to put out a call for the glazing from a broken mirror.

I've done both sides on my '79. What I found was that after removing the mirror retainer (on mine it is plastic around the mirror) on the back of the glass was a foam block on each side of the glass about 1/4" in from the edge. These were pretty much shot. Guess they act as a sort of spring. Replaced these with 4 pieces on each mirror with self stick winterizing foam about 1/4" wide and 1/4" thick. Each side got two pieces, layered up to give about 1/2" thickness, but you can check how much is needed by test fitting. Then just replace the retainer.

Mike, I did something similar, but I found on mine that the little rubber blocks behind the mirror were in an ok state, but the glue holding them had perished. I cleaned off the glue and siliconed them back in the correct position. They have not moved since, and I did that 4 years ago.

My mirrors have a spring inside that pushes the mirror glass against the gasket. You could pack that void with shipping peanuts.