#1 Fitting a TEX Rear-View Mirror to an OTS
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2025 3:29 pm
It's takes a particular sort of gall to retail a product as your own "E-Type-specific speciality", for £39 + VAT, when in fact it's nothing of the sort, and can be bought directly from the manufacturer - TEX - for £30 + VAT.
(You can even pay, I see, £42 + VAT for exactly the same thing, if you shop around other "specialists".)
Add to this that the vendor purports to supply "E-Type specific" instructions that are wholly useless for an OTS, which requires a quite different approach to the Coupé or Fixed-Head.
And the product, as supplied, has a fundamental deficiency for use on an E-Type's chromed frames, as the latter are 1. not flat, and are 2. very slippery.
Add all that together and it's enough to irritate me, anyway, and make me take too many pictures - for which I apologise.
What follows might just help others who are looking for a window-frame mounted rear-view mirror.
The source is Texautomotive.com, they have a wide range of classic-car stuff, including a Quarter-Light mirror section where you'll find the ubiquitous Oval Convex type MQ06, ubiquitous because it's what all those others are selling too, including our "exclusive specialist supplier".
https://texautomotive.com/product/quart ... al-convex/
They are easy to get on the 'phone, helpful, PLUS you can even buy just the mirror heads individually.
The fundamental problem - which is no criticism of TEX - with it is that it's not designed for the E-Type at all, and the footprint is a bit too fat ; with the mounting hardware as supplied, it ends up sitting too far back.
Comments from the trade and others I've consulted include "crap parts", "screws are shite", "chuck away the nylon seat" - everyone refers to using inner tube - and many speak of them falling off.
The nylon seat doesn't even FIT in the base, anyway, as the rib is the wrong shape, and it's a super-slippery material that will never work on chrome.
But it can all be made to work. Read on.
You first have to cut a strip out from the outer section of the door-glass guide channel, otherwise the glass can't get past. I marked out the zone I needed with masking tape, sharpened the end and narrowed the blade on a snap-off cutter, and cut out the requisite bit of felt/rubber.
Then you realise that the bracket that's meant to go in there is actually far too deep - by about 3mm, because it wasn't designed for the Jag.
So I lopped a strip off the front edge, and in this way the front of the mirror base will stand just 1mm proud at the front of the chrome upright, but with a happier grasp of the channel.
The next problem is that the mirror base is flat, when the chrome upright is slightly domed, so it's inherently unstable.
A careful swipe (the base is just made from Sh-1t Zamak) on emery cloth held against a MIG gas cylinder gives just enough easing off the centre to give it two distinct, and much more stable, points of contact.
Then you note that M5 threads going through just 2mm of mild-steel have no hope in hell of sustaining a lasting torque, which in the E-Type application you really do need, so the best approach is to get a pair of M5 nuts - there's plenty of room - and find someone to put a dab of TIG on them, obviously with a guide screw to synchronise the pitches.
I did mine with SIF-bronze, and of course brazed the screw as well on one of them, but was able to re-drill and re-tap, not my finest moment. Beadblast, and a coat of paint.
The slipperiness of the chrome makes it worthwhile using 1mm EPDM sheet (or inner tube ?) on BOTH sides of the mounting claw, and the outer one just needs trimming to size once in place and compressed.
Once these mods are done, the mirror sits pretty convincingly on the door upright, no more overhang screaming "non-original-adaptation", the screws can be tightened with conviction, and the ensemble feels rock-sold.
PS It was a gloomy wet day and I had nothing better to do
(You can even pay, I see, £42 + VAT for exactly the same thing, if you shop around other "specialists".)
Add to this that the vendor purports to supply "E-Type specific" instructions that are wholly useless for an OTS, which requires a quite different approach to the Coupé or Fixed-Head.
And the product, as supplied, has a fundamental deficiency for use on an E-Type's chromed frames, as the latter are 1. not flat, and are 2. very slippery.
Add all that together and it's enough to irritate me, anyway, and make me take too many pictures - for which I apologise.
What follows might just help others who are looking for a window-frame mounted rear-view mirror.
The source is Texautomotive.com, they have a wide range of classic-car stuff, including a Quarter-Light mirror section where you'll find the ubiquitous Oval Convex type MQ06, ubiquitous because it's what all those others are selling too, including our "exclusive specialist supplier".
https://texautomotive.com/product/quart ... al-convex/
They are easy to get on the 'phone, helpful, PLUS you can even buy just the mirror heads individually.
The fundamental problem - which is no criticism of TEX - with it is that it's not designed for the E-Type at all, and the footprint is a bit too fat ; with the mounting hardware as supplied, it ends up sitting too far back.
Comments from the trade and others I've consulted include "crap parts", "screws are shite", "chuck away the nylon seat" - everyone refers to using inner tube - and many speak of them falling off.
The nylon seat doesn't even FIT in the base, anyway, as the rib is the wrong shape, and it's a super-slippery material that will never work on chrome.
But it can all be made to work. Read on.
You first have to cut a strip out from the outer section of the door-glass guide channel, otherwise the glass can't get past. I marked out the zone I needed with masking tape, sharpened the end and narrowed the blade on a snap-off cutter, and cut out the requisite bit of felt/rubber.
Then you realise that the bracket that's meant to go in there is actually far too deep - by about 3mm, because it wasn't designed for the Jag.
So I lopped a strip off the front edge, and in this way the front of the mirror base will stand just 1mm proud at the front of the chrome upright, but with a happier grasp of the channel.
The next problem is that the mirror base is flat, when the chrome upright is slightly domed, so it's inherently unstable.
A careful swipe (the base is just made from Sh-1t Zamak) on emery cloth held against a MIG gas cylinder gives just enough easing off the centre to give it two distinct, and much more stable, points of contact.
Then you note that M5 threads going through just 2mm of mild-steel have no hope in hell of sustaining a lasting torque, which in the E-Type application you really do need, so the best approach is to get a pair of M5 nuts - there's plenty of room - and find someone to put a dab of TIG on them, obviously with a guide screw to synchronise the pitches.
I did mine with SIF-bronze, and of course brazed the screw as well on one of them, but was able to re-drill and re-tap, not my finest moment. Beadblast, and a coat of paint.
The slipperiness of the chrome makes it worthwhile using 1mm EPDM sheet (or inner tube ?) on BOTH sides of the mounting claw, and the outer one just needs trimming to size once in place and compressed.
Once these mods are done, the mirror sits pretty convincingly on the door upright, no more overhang screaming "non-original-adaptation", the screws can be tightened with conviction, and the ensemble feels rock-sold.
PS It was a gloomy wet day and I had nothing better to do