My 1990 originally came without a passenger's side-view mirror. I'm perfectly fine with that but my girlfriend's brother is using the Jeep a few times a week now and his sister asked me to add the mirror for his safety.

So I found a great looking replacement mirror but it wasn't until I went to install it that I learned that it doesn't have threads in the three plastic posts where the screws go but takes self-tapping screws.

I checked the original driver's side mirror and, sure enough, it has THREADED METAL POSTS which take simple bolts.

I'm just nervous that the new mirror which takes self-tapping screws will quickly rattle itself free and fall off the Jeep. Am I being neurotic or should I go hunting for a true OEM passenger's side view mirror that comes with actual threaded metal posts which takes bolts which can be coated in Locktite?

Thanks in advance for any advice...

CJ

Original driver's side mirror with threads:




New, replacement passenger's side mirror with plastic posts needing self-tapping screws:

 

You might be able to improvise a better fix by using different hardware. ACE sells hardware ala carte and you could probably find three bolts and matching nuts of appropriate length and girth.

I wouldn't trust self-tapping screws through a layer of sheetmetal to be strong enough over the duration.

 

Actually, nix all that above.... Does the replacement mirror only have plastic parts to bolt into? I just went to the JY and grabbed a replacement off of a scrapper and it bolted right on.

 

Thanks, 8s.

Your response made me go back to the mirror and look again and it's odd because if you tap on the posts and the whole triangular base of the mirror that mounts to the door, it sure sounds like plastic but when you look inside the posts that accept the self-tapping screws it looks like aluminum with a light spray of black paint as does the whole inside of that triangular base. So now I'm questioning whether it's plastic or if it's metal. The company I bought it from, Everyday Auto Parts, is happy to take it back with no restocking fee but I doubt they will if I start a self-tapping screw to find out. I took a magnet to it and, whatever these posts are, they're non-ferrous. But that could mean plastic or it could mean aluminum...

Here's what it looks like:



And, as you can see, there are no nuts involved -- these self-tapping screws are all that'll be holding the mirror to the door.

CJ

 

There is probably enough meat on those posts to hold the selftapping screws there. Maybe the makers of that mirror forgot to tap them? If the posts are aluminum, make sure the screws are stainless steel.

 

Send that POS back, and find someone local or go to a JY and get a bolt-in replacement. Maybe you will get lucky and find a pair of decent 97-up mirrors to swap in.

 

They were self tapping bolts............

 

I'm sorry, Cruiser, are you saying that the image I posted of the existing bolt from the existing OEM dirver's side mirror is itself a self-tapping bolt?

 

Yes. The mirrors came unthreaded and those bolts made the threads as screwed in.

 

Thanks. Then no point searching for a pre-threaded mirror. (I always thought a self-tapping screw had a pointed tip like a sheet metal or wood screw and not a flat end like the one I took off the existing mirror; I would have called that one a bolt and not a screw. But I'm far from a fastener expert...) Just want to make sure, first, that the receptacle posts on the new one are metal and not plastic. Thanks again.

 

Self tapping screws/bolts have reliefs in the thread like a tap sort of and a small tip to get them started.