Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Shortly after getting the 4.8 for the wife, she decided to be windgat reversing out the garage, not considering that the vehicle is bloody big and there is not much clearance between the side mirrors and the garage door.

In short: left hand mirror was busted. Glass broke, cracks on the housing (not very serious), and the entire mechanism was just floppy and loose. I patched up the damage and had a new mirror cut and fitted at Autoglass, but this was not automotive mirror glass, which means the perspective you have when using it is just entirely wrong...

Problem was: I was easily able to get a second hand mirror (dankie David), but "chromed" mirrors are in short supply, and I could only get a black one. So I decided to repair the chrome cover properly, and build the "new" mirror mechanism into the chrome mirror housing to get rid of the "floppiness"...

So here is a short, photographic howto of how to remove the mirror from the vehicle, as well as dismantle the actual assembly.

To get the mirror off, step one is to remove the piece of trim on the inside front corner of the window. This is simply held in place by to clips. You can use a screwdriver with a rag on the bodywork / trim to prevent damaging the finish.

Once that is removed, one needs to remove the interior of the door panel.

Remove the screw from the door "opener" handle. Do not remove the "trim" around the opener (more on this in a bit).
Jerk off the back end of the arm rest from the rear side of the door and remove.
Remove the screw from the door "handle" in the front part of the armrest.
Unscrew the three silver screws at the top of the "disassembled" door handle.
The next step is to remove the door panel. This is a little tricky, as it is only clipped in place. The panel is made of masonite, and the clips break out easily. All the clips are on the outside edge of the door. So what I did was to peer between the door and the interior panel from the edges to locate the orange clips, and then to use a large flat screw driver to pry the individual clips out slowly. It worked. I got the panel off without breaking anything...

Once the door is unclipped and loose, it will only be held in place by the lip at the top which hooks in where the window is. Git the panel a little of a jerk towards the inside of the vehicle, and the "trim" surrounding the door opener will clip out without damaging anything. At this point, the door panel can be removed by lifting it out towards the top - so that the lip over the window sill comes out.
Next step is to disconnect the mirror control cable and remove the mirror. Trace the mirror cable into the plastic cover inside the door, and unplug. The mirror itself is help in place by three bolts. Remove them from the inside of the door, and then remove the mirror from the outside.
The next step was to strip the mirror assembly. Since I was rebuilding the entire control mechanisms into a new housing, I had to cut off the plug from the control cable as otherwise I would not have got it out of the housing. First step is to remove the cover at the base of the the mirror mount by removing the screw. This will expose three screws. These can be removed. The single screw on the inside edge of the mirror (ie: closest to the vehicle) also needs to be removed. Apologies - I got no photograph of this.
The tricky bit was figuring out how to remove the mirror glass. But it is actually dead easy. The mirror glass clips in using clips. When removing, one needs to get the clips at the bottom disengaged first, then the mirror can swivel upwards and one can remove the glass by pulling downwards (ie: towards the bottom of the mirror) to disengage the clips at the top.

Sadly, the photographs of this are not very clear, but let us try anyways... To get the clips at the bottom to disengange, force the mirror at the top so that you've got a gap between the glass and the assembly at the bottom end of the mirror. In the photo you may just make out a piece of plastic on the back of the glass. Use a small flat screw driver to apply a bit of leverage between the class and the plastic, and the clips will disengage. At this point, the glass can be removed by pulling towards the bottom end of the mirror.
One of the caveats here, is that when removing the glass, the bottom end controller boot has a habit of climbing out of it's recess. You need to get it back into the recess, or the motor is not going to work properly. Simply use a small flat screwdriver to get it reseated....
There are three identical big screws on the back of the controller board which hold the mirror to the housing. Remove them, and you will be able to remove the controller board from the housing.

Re-assembly is pretty much the reverse of assembly. Remember that, when re-attaching the mirror glass, push the glass up from the bottom in order to engage the top clips. After that, press down hard against the glass at the bottom in order to get the bottom clips to engage.
Anyways, simple. Hope it helps someone.

Oh - as a side note: I've got the following available. GRX mirror. Black. Controller mechanism a little damaged. Housing perfect. Fitted with generic mirror glass and not automotive spec. If anybody needs it, let me know.

Great write-up Ian!

Nicely done there Ian !!!

really helpful post Ian

And detailed too Ian, thanks for the post