How to Repair a Rearview Mirror

I found this on a blog at www.cleverhack.com, which seems to be a site for and about women in technical professions (although I could be wrong). It was Posted by Joy on 7/24/03 and titled "Confessions of a G33k. One tech obesessed geek girl opining about current events, technology, and herself." On Tuesday morning when I opened the door of my Jeep, I discovered the rearview mirror sitting on the front console. It had just flat out fallen off of the windshield. This did not surprise me in the least bit, since the Jeep itself had already been the subject of about six recalls from Chrysler. However, let me just say that it was quite disconcerting in that I had to find a method to reattach the mirror fast as I had to be somewhere in 20 minutes. And it was raining. This was my improvised solution. There was no duct tape in the house so I used packing tape. By the way, did you ever wonder why Daimler-Chrysler developed the Jeep Liberty? It was because of the craptacular design problems they had with the low end Cherokees and Wagoneers. At one point after I bought the Jeep, an engineer from Chrysler called me to ask exactly what the problems were with it. Yes, I brought the vehicle back to the dealership that many times... But I do love my Jeep so, even with the problems. As I was driving around that day, I realized that my solution would not last long. Therefore, I stopped by Ace Hardware and picked up a few supplies for a windshield repair project. The packaging on the glue did mention that it was rated at 4200psi. Later that day, I attempted to fix my mirror. I even brought out my super snazzy cell phone with the built-in stopwatch so I could time the glue while it dried. Photo at the right shows what I ended up with. I'm dropping by the windshield repair place tomorrow. In response to this blog, Chris Lawrence posted this reply: "I knocked my rear-view mirror off my old station wagon once (I tossed my backpack across the front seat and it clipped the mirror), but fixing it was pretty easy--just went by AutoZone and picked up some rearview mirror adhesive. The key thing is to detach the mirror from the little metal thingy that is supposed to be on the windshield, then just let the glue on that metal thingy set for a while before attaching the mirror again. If you don't let it set before putting the mirror back up, it'll stay up for a minute or two then come crashing down when you least expect it. (Found that out the hard way.)

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