I have always been proud that the side mirror on my '70 is the factory original...fastened from the inside. I have a spare, new in box, Volvo part, but it fastens from the outside, using two screws through the base. Now I understand why they may have switched.

I was carrying an uncomfortably wide box through the garage and nicked the mirror with the end of it, causing the internal, white metal spring retainer to snap,,,which caused the mirror and arm to plummet to the floor. Having worked on mirrors on other Volvos, I was familiar with the inside construction and not worried nearly so much about fixing the mirror as I was about the chip of paint it dislodged on the way down.

But I decided to tackle the mirror first. Now there are a lot of jobs on old Volvos that are PITA, but I wasn't prepared for this one. Sure, taking the door panels off is no fun, but the access to those nuts on the mirror base really challenged all of my skill and experience, as did re-attaching that Bunyan-esque mirror spring once I'd made a replacement for the retainer. And if I'd thought removing the mirror was hard, getting it back together was near impossible...but I did it, with three separate tries. With patience, grease, duct tape, rubber tubing...every mechanic's trick in the book.

If anybody else needs to attempt this, please give me shout by email before starting. I might be able to save you the literal blood, sweat and tears that I had to invest in this project...all because i was clumsy with a box.

I deal mostly with 140/164 but have experienced the white metal spring hook failure.
Getting a new spring anchor made and installed is no problem. Hooking the spring to it
is certainly another matter!!
How did you do that? I found that anything strong enough to hold the base against the
spring tension also seemed to be strong enough to destroy the base!
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Oklahoma

It took be several tries, but what worked was as follows:

Take a suitable length of coat hanger and loop it through the closed end of the spring. Then twist it several times. Make sure you leave a large loop (3/4")

Attached the hook end of the spring into the replacement retainer in the stem, fish coat hanger and spring through the hole in the base and orient the spring so that when the mirror is in the correct position (when mounted on the car) the loop end of the spring is perpendicular to the mounting post in the base and is on the side of the spring facing away from the base.

Disconnect the glass part of the mirror so it isn't damaged

Clamp the coat hanger firmly in a big vise so that the end of the base is is about 3/16" from the side of the jaws.

Slot a soft piece of wood (I used a paint paddle) so it fits over the coat hanger and to between the vice and the mirror base.

Adjust the vice/base distance as needed to allow you to lever the spring by maneuvering the base up down and to the side, against the wood. When the loop is over the post use a screw driver to push it down and seat it on the post.

Use side cutters to remove the coat hanger. There will be a remnant of it lodged between the spring and the post. I was tempted to let well enough alone, but risked busting off that white metal post by grabbing the remnant and twisting it with needle nose pliers until I got it out. Thankfully doing that didn't pop the spring back off.

The next problem was those crappy white metal mounting studs. I probably should have cut them off and drilled and tapped the base for new steel or brass studs. They had about one fastening left in them. Maybe next time.

Amazing what we'll do for just a smidge of authenticity....
Many thanks!
GFD III
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Oklahoma

It is my pleasure, sir. I've read many, many of your posts and appreciate your dedication to this site.

Been down that road with my 66. To make the best of it I added sound insulation to the inside of the doors, lubricated the window hardware, tightened fasteners, and cleaned out the weep holes in the bottom of the door. It was a door session.
Now I have Talbot style mirrors on the fenders.

Someone must have thought the clean-screwless look better than easy replacement. Good for you for fixing the original. A few years ago I looked to Volvo for replacing the side mirrors on my 144. The replacements were plastic and the range of adjustment made them useless. Off they came and there wasn't any arguement from the parts dept. even though they were a special order item. Maybe the the ones for an 1800 are better. -- Dave