The outside mirrors were some of the worst chrome trim on the car. The pot metal was heavily corroded and pitted. After painting the car and getting the rest of the chrome re-plated these were easily the worst part of the car, bringing down overall appearance.
Why weren’t these done with the rest of the trim? Cost. Each mirror would cost $650 to restore, because of the extensive work they needed to correct the pitting.
Good news! I managed to track down new reproduction mirrors for only $175 each. While Imperial specific parts are hard to find, these mirrors were listed for 58-66 Imperial, 58-64 Chrysler, and 58-62 Dodge Plymouth Desoto. This is a large enough market to support making reproduction parts.
I ordered two of the mirrors and was pleasantly surprised by the high quality when they showed up.
Installing them was a bit of a job. Mounting most rear view mirrors is a case of two screws and you are done. Of course it isn’t that easy on an Imperial! The Imperial mirrors are remotely adjustable, so the control cables have to be routed from the front fender to inside the cabin and installed in the dashboard.
As expected, the mirrors are mounted on top of a sealed compartment with no access other than a couple of 1″ holes, making it a bit of a nightmare to route the cables and adjuster… With creative use of a number of tools, patience, and an application of appropriate invective the cables were finally in place.
With the cables run the actual installation of the mirrors was, in fact, two screws and 30 seconds of time.
The new mirrors look great and work well. Another big step forward for the Imperial!