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One of the issues that is always a problem in restoring old cars is finding materials used when the car was manufactured.  Many times the materials are no longer available.  The hard to find material here is the dark gray tinted mirror used by the Darrin.  It was unique but not that great...didn't stop glair and made it difficult to view objects.  The mirror mounted on the dash didn't help either because it was too low to see objects close to the rear of the car.  The mirror is also 1/8" thick which makes finding the gray tinted mirror material even more difficult.  

​​Reproducing the Darrin Rear View Mirror with a press tool.

It's good to have talented friends with a lot of equipment.  A good friend with a metal fabrication business, Jimmy Hervatin of Kustoms by Jimmy, designed and laser cut some dies to stamp the mirror housing.   These pictures show the female bottom die and half of the male top die.  I have to machine the second part of the top die that forms the curved portion of the mirror housing in my shop and add it to the die set.

To test the die, we did a coupon test on the first tier of the mirror housing which is pictured here.  The die works great so far.  I will machine the second tier portion of the die, install it, and run a second test.  Will update the site at that time.

The flashing has been cut from the mirror frame here.   Jimmy Hervatin laser cut a mask that I inserted in the mirror frame and cut, then ground, the edge down to the mask which made it much easier to keep the edge consistent.  

This is the final fixture used with the die I machined and polished welded in position.  The fixture is placed in the press and and the blank is pressed into shape. 

Starting to machine the die to form the curved back of the mirror.  This is the first operation where the barrel shape is formed.  The ends now need to be formed, then will be smoothed on the belt grinder.  

Kaiser Darrin mirror

The Darrin rear view mirror is a Darrin only item.  There are some similar mirrors that have been used as replacements over the years...one is a Studebaker mirror.  However, it appears the original Darrin mirror was only used on the Darrin.   It is mounted on the dash rather than on the top windshield frame and originally came with a tinted mirror. Over the years several were damaged or lost and there are no additional original mirrors available.    A Darrin owner was kind enough to allow me to use his original mirror to use as a reference for a reproduction project.

The blank is formed into the mirror housing as shown here.  The housing now needs to have the excess trimmed away and the hole for the mounting stem and ball formed.  After the other components are made, they will all be chromed and assembled. 

Got the prototype of the stem and base machined and the tooling to make them completed.  The stem is in 2 pieces and screws together.  The top of the stem bends forward 70 degrees.  I haven't made the fixture to accomplish the 70 degree bend yet.  I also need to make a fixture to form the bell-mouth opening in the mirror back the the ball on the upper stem fits into and allows the mirror to be adjusted.