A Replacement Convex Mirror that Really Works

[patrickt]

For years I've had a little stick on convex mirror, over the regular mirror, on my driver side. It works well enough to rid blind spots up close, but it's of crappy optics and too convex. If a car is more than, say, 20 yards back it looks like it's a mile away. I know some high-end European cars have "slightly convex" mirrors, that are made of real glass, not plastic, and that also absorb the glare of headlights. Finding a replacement mirror that fits, and is of high optical quality, is not easy. I finally found a place that sold the stuff. A 90mm true glass mirror, slightly convex, and, when you hold the mirror up to a bright light, you can actually see through the mirror. Apparently that is how it absorbs the glare of headlights while still providing high optics. Anyway, here's a shot of the new glass, sitting inside my mirror housing on a table, next to the dime store convex stick on that I had been using. Both are the same height off the table. Note the reflection of the light that is over the table and the size difference between the two images. Big, big difference.