I was recently doing some work on my side mirrors and totally jacked up and broke the mirror itself. I can't order a new mirror because these are aftermarket and were discontinued a long time ago. I was going to look for a place to have new ones cut, but after looking around and watching a couple of vids. I decided to do the job myself.

The broken mirror


Went to Hornbach (German Home Depot) and picked up a glass cutter for 3.75 Euros. The glass I will be cutting are some old BMW mirrors from an E36 with a nice bluish tint to them that I had laying around. I also have a ruler to try and get some decently straight lines cut.

The glass cutter



Removed the plastic backing and heating element from the BMW mirrors. I made sure I heated them up first to help release the adhesive. I also traced out the old mirror unto the newer mirror.




I did a straight edge first. Used my ruler, butted my cutter up to it and scored my first line. Make sure you make your score mark from the glass edge to glass edge. Took my pliers and lightly tapped the backside near the score mark. Then held the glass with the pliers and pulled down and away until it popped away. Probably not the best way to do it, but it worked for me.

Quick vid demonstrating this
<a href="http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a30/lazyp_noy/Cutting%20new%20mirrors/?action=view&current=Movie.mp4" target="_blank"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a30/lazyp_noy/Cutting%20new%20mirrors/th_Movie.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" style="width: 160px;"></a>




I cut my first mirror out in steps. Got my straight lines out of the way then cut away my curves. On the second mirror I was able to just cut away the curve in one step.


You can see my score on the long side of my trace mark.


Starting on one of the curved ends.



After I was done cutting away my mirror I used some sandpaper on a straight edge to remove any sharp points and to try to smooth down a couple jagged edges that I had.

For a first timer I thought I did fairly well. I didn’t have to spend a ton of money and got the satisfaction of doing it myself and gained a new skill that I can use later on.

Test fit



Mounted back on the car.




Went ahead and did the drivers side to.


Before



After


You can see the light blue tint on the new mirrors.

I definetly recomend using safety glassed when doing this.

 

Awesome! I'll be doing this to my GSL-SE. Thanks for pioneering!

 

awesome write up. lol Hornbach...

 

Good job... I would've saved the heating element on the back of the glass though.

 

Great job! I bet with a little practice you can get them absolutely perfect.

 

are those aftermarket mirrors are the just on the oppisite side upside down? im confused

 

Aftermarket. I can't remember the name but they are not RE Amemiya, so nobody say otherwise

RMagic?

 

Awesome, thanks for that. This will come in handy with my luck >.>

 

lol I make mirrors for a living. well done on the DIY

 

I think that will be next. I still have the heating elements. I just have to figure out how to cut them and make them work still. I think I might have to solder some jumper wires. It would be awesome though to have heated mirrors on the 7

I don't know either, but I think I remember someone mentioning Yours Sports

Thanks. For a first timer, I don't think I did to bad. I'll redo them again some time in the future and hopefully I can get my edges a little better.

 

nice, i didn't realize it was so easy

 

I don't know how feasible it is, but if you or someone you know can make an accurate CAD drawing of your mirror I can cut it out professionally for you...

 

know if you want a cleeener look you can curt it some what over size and just grind it down

 

very cool man! this will definatly come in handy!