Another Crappy Chinese “Restoration” Part

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RogerRamRod

The Older I Get, The Faster I Was
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Drivers side remote mirror
Bought it 2 years ago, so warranty is out, but car is still in project stage, hasn’t been out of the garage yet.
3 issues
1, installed the mirror and noticed the control lever movement doesn’t relate to the mirror movement. Compared to the original- the red, green, yellow cables are crimped into the wrong locations.
2, After opening/closing the door a few times, at one point I noticed the control “joystick” seemed to be gone, yet the bezel ring was still in place. WTF? Turns out, not enough material for them to peen the pot metal to hold it together. Pictured compared to original.
At this point I Contacted Dantes Parts describing both problems and the response was “we haven’t had any problems with those, but we’ll let our supplier know.” So I came up with a way to hold it together, & got it installed.
Now problem 3
I went to adjust mirror and heard POP, and joystick stuck in down position. One of the cables came un-crimped from the slug that holds it in the adjuster.
Original works perfectly for 55 years, just looks like crap. Guess I’m going to try to put original parts into new chrome housing, worst case, it becomes a manual adjust or fixed position.

88289E49-3269-4C22-B09A-86D93E8FD3AF.jpeg
 
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If you can get the old mechanism to work in the new housing that sounds like a good solution.
 
Im hoping, but I’ll have to open the pot metal to get ghe cable ends out of the adjuster, and another pot metal joint for the cable housing times 3 cables take it apart, thread it all in the new housing then put all 6 joints back together.
Im gonna give it a go, but my track record with small pot metal stuff ain’t all that great
 
Im hoping, but I’ll have to open the pot metal to get ghe cable ends out of the adjuster, and another pot metal joint for the cable housing times 3 cables take it apart, thread it all in the new housing then put all 6 joints back together.
Im gonna give it a go, but my track record with small pot metal stuff ain’t all that great
Make sure you get some wax and wax the back of it and the mirror itself before you put it on
 
Sorry to read, so Dantes just shrugs his shoulders and doesnt give a f**k??
Add that one to the list.
Hope you're able to make it presentable.
 
Sorry to read, so Dantes just shrugs his shoulders and doesnt give a f**k??
Add that one to the list.
Hope you're able to make it presentable.
They should've taken the bad one back and sent a new one and let the supplier deal with it.
 
They should've taken the bad one back and sent a new one and let the supplier deal with it.
Absolutely. Dante's should go to bat for you with the supplier. Out of warranty period or not, it was junk out of the box. They might not be able to get a refund, but they should fight to get a replacement. Garages do this all the time.

Crap. I just ordered the exact same part yesterday. OER brand from Classic Industries. I once had a quality problem on an expensive part I bought from them, and they made it right.
 
This is a problem for the hobbyist.
We try to order parts ahead of time and when we get around to using it, the part is junk or wrong.
So we spend more money.
I can understand the vendor, 2 years is a long time.
But, never seen that problem?
I find that hard to believe.

Good luck with fixing it.
 
As much as I've read it's a pain to disassemble a remote mirror, I'll take mine apart eventually for rechroming.
Yeah Dantes should have exchanged it, for the amount they charge for it.
 
There is a clip that goes inside the door to hold the cables away from the glass as it goes up & down also. It may not be in all A body doors, but it needs to be in Duster/Demon/Sport doors with remote drivers mirrors. I would say it is needed to keep the door glass from jerking the cables out of the mirror or control. Steve, @Oldmanmopar did a post about it on here several years ago.
 
Im hoping, but I’ll have to open the pot metal to get ghe cable ends out of the adjuster, and another pot metal joint for the cable housing times 3 cables take it apart, thread it all in the new housing then put all 6 joints back together.
Im gonna give it a go, but my track record with small pot metal stuff ain’t all that great
I had exactly the same problem with my original one.
15 min JB weld and zip ties fixed it,
Also only move the pot metal as much as absolutely needed.
 
Thanks, I’m assuming it’s needed for single piece side glass (cars without vent windows)?
 
There is a clip that goes inside the door to hold the cables away from the glass as it goes up & down also. It may not be in all A body doors, but it needs to be in Duster/Demon/Sport doors with remote drivers mirrors. I would say it is needed to keep the door glass from jerking the cables out of the mirror or control. Steve, @Oldmanmopar did a post about it on here several years ago.
Masking tape doesn't work. DAMHIK
 
Yup. See here.

("We haven't had any problem with those" LOLROFL)
Read that whole thread.
Since the casting seems okay, would it make sense to send them to a good chrome shop to have them strip them and rechrome them correctly? Im worried about the tail light bezels & side marker lights now too
 
Donno. I'd probably take it to a good, reputable plating shop and ask their opinion on that question. Could be just the plating is crummy, or could be there's something about the casting (impurities/voids in the metal?) which would make even good plating go bad in a hurry.
 
Thanks, I’m assuming it’s needed for single piece side glass (cars without vent windows)?
Believe so. None of my vent window cars have or need that, since the back of the vent window frame goes way down into the door, and the mirror cable is in front of that.
 
As much as I've read it's a pain to disassemble a remote mirror, I'll take mine apart eventually for rechroming.
Yeah Dantes should have exchanged it, for the amount they charge for it.
At Don's show in 2020 there were some good ok boys from N Carolina there. They had a lot of new parts, at killer prices. I could have got a remote mirror for my car for like $120 with the cable and the adjuster I think it came with the clips I forgot mine was remote and just got a standard mirror I think it was only 80 bucks
 
Was going to start a new thread on crappy OER Sport Mirrors but I searched and saw this one. I opened a box last night to find the remote did not move the mirror and the mirror just flops around.
What is the best way to just make it fixed? I never have to adjust mirrors once their set anyway.
 
First thing I do when I see a deal at a swap meet is flip it over to see if it's a repop because if something don't smell right...it ain't....oem ma mopar sport mirrors will only do for me.....paintable ones ...the chrome ones will pit later....a good used set with decent glass is around $250-$300..NOS that price will only get you one mirror ...if ya lucky
 
Same problem with my remote, everything is *** backwards. The fixed one on the passenger moves every time the door is closed. May try some blue locktite on that . Chinisium.
 
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