I am too young to remember cars with proper wing mirrors.
A general chat at work today has led me to wonder what did drivers actually see in their wing mirrors? Was the glass special convex or whatever or were they plain glass?
I can't think of how these could give any decent view bearing in mind they would have been about 4or 5 feet away from the driver?
What did you actually see in them?
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Had them on my Capri MK1, where they looked as tho they were made for it. Cant remember if they were convex or not, the view behind/side was actually quite good and much easier to use being in your line of sight and much less of a blind spot.
PITA to adjust tho.
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In the days of wing mirrors cars were tiny compared to modern cars, the mirrors would be a lot closer than you think and more in your line of sight than door mirrors.
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>> In the days of wing mirrors cars were tiny compared to modern cars, the mirrors
>> would be a lot closer than you think and more in your line of sight
>> than door mirrors.
Believe me, on a Ford Capri they were a lot further away than you think
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>> Believe me, on a Ford Capri they were a lot further away than you think
>>
Not grown out of vanity motors yet?
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>> >> Believe me, on a Ford Capri they were a lot further away than you
>> think
>> >>
>>
>> Not grown out of vanity motors yet?
If you mean "have I got so old and cranky that I am Honda Jazz / Toyata Yaris material" then the answer is No.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 30 May 17 at 08:56
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What did I see in them ? Well, I just can't remember such details back in the late 1960s and early 70s. I'm pretty sure they had flat glass, so I don't suppose one saw much.
I remember fitting an after market accessory mirror to the pillar behind the quarterlight (remember those ?) on quite a few cars: Ford Anglia 105E, Hillman Imp, Escort Mexico and more Minis than I can recall - at least 5. Those mirrors were definitely flat and I think I might even have one lurking at the bottom of a box in the garage.
It'll be in the same place as the locking fuel caps, Krooklok, 1966 World Cup coins from Esso and the odd 'Tiger in the tank' and bullet hole stickers.
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Back in the sixties and seventies the first thing I did after getting a new car was to buy a pair of wing mirrors and an aerial for the radio that I had removed from my last car. I had wing mirrors on my Ford Anglia; two Standard Ensigns; two Vauxhall Vivas; three Triumph 1300 TCs; one Triumph 2000; and my four Ford Cortinas.
I used to change my car about every two years then.
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>>What did you actually see in them?
The road behind, without having to turn your head or refocus the eyes. They also gave better coverage of the current blind spots over the shoulders.
Old age means I now wear bi-focals, but because of door mirrors I have ones with the distance part of the lens extended into what would normally be the near section so I avoid nodding my head as well as turning it to look in the door mirrors.
Door mirrors were foisted upon us by, I believe, an EU directive requiring mirrors to be adjustable from the driver's seat.
For a while, wing mirrors with a cable operated adjustment were a available.
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>>EU directive >>
Pedestrian safety IIRC.
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>>Pedestrian safety IIRC.
Probably that as well.
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>> Old age means I now wear bi-focals,
>>
Try high-end top-quality varifocals. Some opticians may let you have a free trial.
Last edited by: BrianByPass on Mon 29 May 17 at 23:01
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>> Try high-end top-quality varifocals. Some opticians may let you have a free trial.
Don't forget the mortgage! My last pair cost nearly £600!!!!!!!
Mother In Law said her second house didn't cost that much!
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>>Mother In Law said her second house didn't cost that much!
My mother & father were married in 1939 - the 2 bed semi cottage was brand new & was listed as £225 - my grandfather was buying the house for cash & offered £200 before agreeing on £210. The 3 bed detached bungalow would have been a lot better buy but it was £260!!
The house is still standing but I have no idea of what it is worth today other than "a lot more"- it was sold by my mum & dad in 1946/47 for roughly £230 & the 2nd owner lived in it till round about 2000/2001.
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I have a wing mirror on the Classic. It's flat and does give me a good all round view to the rear offside. The bonnet is quite short, though...certainly not Crapri length ! I've found a matching one for the nearside but I'm in two minds whether to fix it on the nearside wing or at the front of the driver's door. I do have a quarter light mirror courtesy of Tubby Tommy.
I also have two brand new , boxed chrome torpedo mirrors which I really should sell on...they were for a Dolomite which got sold.
Last edited by: Ted on Mon 29 May 17 at 23:19
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I've got wing mirrors on the Triumph and the LandRover.
You can have flat or convex, and both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Flat shows things the size they really are, but it is harder to get the general picture. Covex give a wide view, but things look further away than they are, so you need to be aware of that and allow for it.
The difference is obviously why modern mirrors have a vertical portion on the outer edge where the glass curvature changes, so you get the benefits of both perspectives.
One big advantage of wing mirrors is that both mirrors and the interior mirror are all within one's field of view, so eye movement alone allows each to be scanned without moving the head. So they are much more relaxing and less tiring to monitor continuously than door mirrors. So in practical terms rear view is better than with door mirrors, which require a distracting head movement to use the nearside mirror.
A disadvantage is they are fiddly to set up and adjust, as obviously out of reach of the driver. But on the other hand their position makes them more accommodating to different driver's requirements.
The appropriate style looks absolutely right on a classic car. The LandRover has the traditional basic round kind in mat black, the Triumph's are what I think is technically called an elongated isosceles rhombus, in chrome.
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Taking heated mirrors out the equation just now, I would assume that on a dark wet night they would be next to useless if covered in rain whereas at least a door mirror your brain may be able to decipher the lights etc better?
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>> Taking heated mirrors out the equation just now, I would assume that on a dark
>> wet night they would be next to useless if covered in rain whereas at least
>> a door mirror your brain may be able to decipher the lights etc better?
No that wasn't the case, they did not get covered in spray, and they were visible through the swept area of the screen, which is not the case with door mirrors.
They were all round a better visibility solution than door mirrors.
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>>elongated isosceles rhombus
Before consulting your GP about that condition, may I suggest a course of pre & pro biotics along with a reduction of refined sugar in your diet.
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So they are much more relaxing and less tiring to monitor
>> continuously than door mirrors. So in practical terms rear view is better than with door
>> mirrors, which require a distracting head movement to use the nearside mirror.
Are door mirrors that tiring and distracting?
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>> So they are much more relaxing and less tiring to monitor
>> >> continuously than door mirrors. So in practical terms rear view is better than with
>> door
>> >> mirrors, which require a distracting head movement to use the nearside mirror.
>>
>>
>> Are door mirrors that tiring and distracting?
They do require extra head movements and most people never have them set up right
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SQ!
>> They do require extra head movements and most people never have them set up right
>>
That's true if I get in a work vehicle they are usually all over the place, looking up at the moon or some such. Plus we've some older transits still so you have to go back out and push the mirror around to get it right.
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 30 May 17 at 10:30
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Wing mirrors always seemed to attract rust on the early cars I bought. No plastic inner wings in those days, the salt and muck gathered around the spigot under the wing. I remember losing the LH wing mirror with a saucer-sized section of front wing while I was bowling along in my Fiat 1500, FWY 999C
Dad had streamlined bullet-shaped wing mirrors on his Jag Mk II VGR 725. The RH one had a white lens in the front and a red plastic surround to the mirror and could be used as a 'parking light'.
PS Reg. numbers included to show at least part of my memory is working.
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>> Wing mirrors always seemed to attract rust on the early cars I bought.
>> No plastic inner wings in those days, the salt and muck gathered around the spigot under the wing.
>>
The Cortina 1600E that I bought when it was 18 months old rotted its wings . After having new wings fitted just a few years later I also fitted aluminium inner wing liners that were available back then.
Not many folks were aware that such items were available.
IIRC they were made in Finland by Lokari
I was surprised to find the company still exists in Germany and still makes the same style items.
www.lokari.de/fender
Any restorers might like to consider these to help preserve their chariot.
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>> Old age means I now wear bi-focals,
I did, for weeks, but couldn't get on with them. Found I was using one of two 'sweet spots' in the lens and having to move my head around a lot. Varifocals certainly are at a disadvantage with door mirrors.
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>> >> Old age means I now wear bi-focals,
>>
>> I did, for weeks, but couldn't get on with them. Found I was using one
>> of two 'sweet spots' in the lens and having to move my head around a
>> lot. Varifocals certainly are at a disadvantage with door mirrors.
Not. You must have had very badly specified and dispensed varifocals. There are no "sweet spots" they only exist in bi or tri focals.
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>>You must have had very badly specified and dispensed varifocals. There are no "sweet spots" they only exist in bi or tri focals.
My bifocals have a true distance lens in the top part and a true reading distance lens in the bottom part (apart from the distance lens extending to the lower, outer part of each glass).
I can't verify the quality of the varifocals I experienced, but I do know they wouldn't have dealt with the door mirror problem.
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>> I can't verify the quality of the varifocals I experienced, but I do know they
>> wouldn't have dealt with the door mirror problem.
I can verify that my properly dispensed varifocals dont have a problem with mirrors.
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I found that varifocals take a little while to work unobtrusively. Your brain has to figure out what is going on with your eyes and retrain itself to use the different information it is getting. You also have to learn how to use them. Most of this is sub conscious and only takes a few days. I have no problem with any aspect of driving with varifocals and can switch between seeing the road, mirrors, and instruments as I did when I was a youngster and my eyes worked unaided. At the moment I can switch between the tablet on my knee, the TV across the room, and the house across the road seamlessly and all in sharp focus.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Wed 31 May 17 at 08:59
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It's not a matter as to whether they are properly dispensed or not, it is more a question of what the actual problem is with your eyesight. Varifocals aren't necessarily the best function for everyone for every purpose.
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Got my first varifocals about a yearish ago. At first I couldn't really get on with them, but it seemed better than having three pairs of glasses to juggle about.
More recently I'd pretty well decided they were fine and all was well, until one day a couple of weeks ago for some reason I put on a pair of my old "normal" glasses. It was very noticeable that everything was sharper and clearer through the originals.
Whether that's because £600 spent at a proper optician still buys you varifocals that are not of the best (they were the most expensive lenses they did) or whether the nature of things is that anything that tries to replace three pairs of glasses in one isn't ever going to perform as well as each of those individually, I don't know.
So for me, they're ok, happy not to do endless swapping, but still feel I might end up going back to multiple pairs for a slightly clearer sharper brighter view. Which wont be any cheaper, that's for sure.
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It is possible that my varifocals are relatively weak for long range use and stronger for reading distance. I always ask the optician if I am legal to drive without glasses after a bi-annual test. The answer has always been that I am well in spec for driving. Eyesight wise anyway.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Wed 31 May 17 at 15:27
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Wing mirrors - Zero
