Questions and Answers
The Lady Needs A Mirror
Q. OK, I have a1992 Subaru and a body repair question I hope you can help me with.
Today, right before I got a traffic ticket, someone scraped all the paint on the side of my car off in a parking lot. What a day. In any case, the anonymous parker took all the glass in my driver's side rear view mirror too. It's one of those electronic mirror doohickeys (can you tell I'm not a professional mechanic?), and the mechanism still works, not a scratch on the plastic, not a wire out of place (this is pretty amazing). But there's no glass where there should be glass on the mirror base. The question is: is it possible for the body shop to replace just the glass or do they really have to replace the whole thing? I'd rather know beforehand whether this is gonna run me a hundred bucks or four hundred. Forewarned, forearmed and all that. If you know anything about such things, please do let me know.
Thanks,
FeliciaA. It used to be when you broke an outside rear view mirror, you had to replace the whole mirror. Now most cars will let you replace just the glass. You can call the Subaru dealers parts department and ask them if the mirror is available separately and how much it is. If it is, you can buy the mirror and take it to your regular mechanic and he can put it in for you.
Some glass shops can make a mirror for you and install it if the mirror mount itself is still there. If it's one of those "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear" mirrors, then they won't be able to help you.
