convex side mirror update

["Walter Coe" <Whalt@xxxx>]

My convex side mirror project made its so-called official debut at the
Memphis show. There is no shortage of people who want them, but the only
problem is making them. It isn't easy. Paying to have only a few hundred
produced is cost prohibitive, so I have had some success at buying new
larger mirrors and cutting them down by hand. This is what you saw on my
car and at Ed Uding's table (DMC Service / Netherlands) at the outdoor
vendor's area.

So far I have invested several hundred dollars, made a few good mirrors and
broke one heck of a lot of glass. And breaking 3 mirrors just hours before
leaving for Memphis, I was one of the luckiest guys there. I won 4 raffle
prizes including a Sunstar model (like I really need a 4th one :-) a
DeLorean throw/wall hanging and a Zilla tool kit.

So about breaking mirrors -- There are two kinds of glass that I can buy.
The successfully cut & shaped mirrors were of a different kind of glass that
I could cut using a wet diamond bandsaw and grinder. But they don't use
that kind of glass anymore and it is hard to find. And even then each
mirror takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to complete. The new glass is even more
hard & brittle and cracks through the middle before I can shape it. That
was the broken glass with the masking tape pattern also on display at Ed's
table.

So I am back to the drawing board per se. The next thing to try is cutting
the glass using a high pressure jet of water spray ran by a CNC machine. If
I can make this process work, then the price is going way down and I'll be
only wholesaling to the DeLorean vendors. Also I am looking into other ways
to cut the mirrors without breaking them. The mirror that I start with
costs $11, so it really hurts to break one. And I've broken way more
mirrors than I finish.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, let me know. Until then, I still
have some old easy-to-shape glass, but there isn't much left to be had in a
size big enough to cut down. I'm obviously not doing this to make any
money. What I get out of it is making something that will become part of
someone's DeLorean that will make it a safer car to drive. And that is a
reward in itself.

Drive safe,
Walt Tampa, FL