Heated Mirrors in a K10!

[andrewb150]

Would these be able to fit into a standard K10 mirror?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130060537310

From what I remember the mirror is held in from the centre not the edge so I dont think it would be possible to use one of these without cutting a whole in the centre and remaking the circuit somehow.

Just the job for these cold winter mornings!!

 

[RaptorRVL]

Think it's possible, not even that hard.
But if you need to make a hole on the middle then it's not such a big problem too I think. Use that electrical paint (for fixing the back window heating) to re-route the circuit. And ofcourse don't forget to properly seal the connections where the screw goes in to avoid any nastyness there.

Getting the electrics there wouldn't be too much of a problem too I guess.
Looks pretty nice though, might get me some of these too And then just wire them on the switch of the back window heater.

 

[lawina]

you don't need to cut anything out... the mirror glass is glued to the plastic that holds it... you just have to heat it up using for example hair dryer and gently take the glass out... stick this heating mat to it and put everything back together. the electric is even easier... one wire you can connect to a screw that holds the whole mirror to the door (ground)... and the other one to the wire that goes to the rear window heating...

 

[RaptorRVL]

aha, no screws then That's even better.
cheers for the info

 

[Speedle]

what an excellent idea! certainly looks easy to do

 

[SammoHung]

lol I can see this guy getting totally bought out of stock!! from us lot

this is a wickid mod


Raptor:..I wasnt aware of electrical paint...and I NEED to fix some broken wires on my rear screen

Where can I get this stuff????


Also...when fitting teh mirror glass back on...does the glue softening with a hairdryer imply that the whole lot should be re glues using a few blobs of epoxy so that the glass doesn't drop back off again when the mats get warm/hot?

 

[andrewb150]

Where can I get this stuff????

www.speeding.co.uk

search for Electro Connector

 

[SammoHung]

cheers for that mate....I've ordered some (£10 for the kit)....looking forward to receiving it..


I have 4 or 5 lines out on my rear window...but not for long!


I will appreciate this during the winter especially

 

[Krian]

Also...when fitting teh mirror glass back on...does the glue softening with a hairdryer imply that the whole lot should be re glues using a few blobs of epoxy so that the glass doesn't drop back off again when the mats get warm/hot?

From what I can read of the ad, the mat has glue on one side for the mirror glass, not sure if has glue on the otherside to attach it back to the frame tho, but it says the flips side is protected against the heat getting too high, so you could probably use a decent epoxy resin to put it back onto the frame.

If someone buys em, can ya let me know? Twould be interesting to know if its gonna be a pain before I shell out £7.90 (Yeah, im a cheap skate, i know... )

Only prob I can see is if the glass gets broken, tis gonna be a pain to get it all out to replace it

 

[SammoHung]

K:

As it turns out... I ordered a pair of these...and thay arrived at my works before crimbo...I only collected these after the holls though; so this is the reason for the delay in getting back (ong-bak?) (eh?)...sorry Im drunk again)

Anyway, I can confirm that te mats have a peel-away backing-paper that reveals a self adhesive side to the mats(the wire terminals are on the non-adhesive side ofcourse and are about 13mm from the edge). The glue seems good, and I reccon it will bond well if the rear of the mirror glass is properly clean and flat before sticking the mat on..... It also loooks like the heating strip is well-electrically insulated (at 12 volts) from the glue-layer too. (I was worried that the heater strip would short on the silver oxide or what ever it is on the rear of the mirror) ....so my only stress now, is the bonding of the mat-clad mirror-glass back onto the mirror mounting securely.

The mats are 12 Watts each so they should get fairly "George Michael" (Warm/Wham)....(bad joke)

...Have you ever touched a 10 Watt resistor with your finger...ouch!!(sizzle..smell of bacon)

The heating wire tracks pretty much cover the pad but there is about 3mm between the track so it would be possible to punch the mats between the wires to blob an array of epoxy dots or stripes......also The K10 mirrors are bigger than the mats so a separate pannel could be made to interface the bad-mirror assembly to the mounting...?

I was thinking of adding these to the rear window heater switch and may-be reviewing the fuse rating (I havent looked at this yet though)

I'll keep you updated but it might be a wile as I have quite a bit on at the mo

 

[Krian]

As a suggestion Sammo, look for oven door repair glue, some DIY shops might sell it, and you can get some that resists a really high temperature. Theres also some versions that are resistant to electricity, which would probably be a good idea.

http://www.cotronics.com sells the stuff but its an american, tho they do have a lot of info on the different glues so it will probably give you an idea of what your looking for.

 

[Turtle]

Definitely need to make a guide on this if you manage it ok Sammo, good work dude!

 

[SammoHung]

Will do cheers,

BTW: Does anyone know where I can get some of those soft flexible oval corrugated rubber ducts the go between the door and the chassis ?

The K10 has blanking plugs on the door and the chassis so there was provision for these tubes to be fitted but ofcourse my car does not have central locking, electric windows, electric mirrors nor anything like that so I dont have any tubes fitted!!