The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 12, 2019 4:49 pm 
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Looking at various topic threads for different model-years of Toledos and Dolomites, I have noticed that they have either door-mounted or wing-mounted exterior rear-view mirrors. Some have two mirrors

Were there any particular configurations of fitment either by the factory or dealership, for particular models and/or model-years?

My family's second-hand (bought in May 1975, as an ex-demonstrator), four-door, 1974 Triumph Toledo 1300, came fitted with a single TEX stainless-steel, exterior rear-view mirror, mounted on the driver's door but none on the passenger door.

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Nigel A. Skeet

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Upgraded 1974 Triumph Toledo 1300 (Toledo / Dolomite HL / Sprint hybrid)

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 12, 2019 8:29 pm 
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Exterior mirrors were optional until 1978 when by law they had to have one on the drivers side.
earlier cars up till about 1975 usually had wing mirrors if the owner wanted mirrors, after that door mirrors became the fad with some opting to be posh and have a pair fitted, these could be fitted by the dealer as a bought (or fitted to push sales) option or bought from your local car shop and were normally TEX or another brand which I can't remember the name of but look very similar.

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 12, 2019 10:29 pm 
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Were they the "desmo" mirrors?

Tony.

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 12, 2019 10:33 pm 
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Quote:
Were they the "desmo" mirrors?

Tony.


Sounds about right. :thumbsup:

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PostPosted: Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:49 pm 
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Location: South Benfleet, Essex
Quote:
Looking at various topic threads for different model-years of Toledos and Dolomites, I have noticed that they have either door-mounted or wing-mounted exterior rear-view mirrors. Some have two mirrors

Were there any particular configurations of fitment either by the factory or dealership, for particular models and/or model-years?

My family's second-hand (bought in May 1975, as an ex-demonstrator), four-door, 1974 Triumph Toledo 1300, came fitted with a single TEX stainless-steel, exterior rear-view mirror, mounted on the driver's door but none on the passenger door.
I disliked having a nearside blindspot, so I later fitted a matching pair of offside & nearside TEX stainless-steel, exterior rear-view mirrors, with convex, blue-tinted, anti-dazzle lenses.

Ideally, I would prefer to substitute a matching pair of twin-lensed mirrors, similar to those made my Zanetti in Switzerland, or these that I found in a mid-1980s mail-order catalogue for J. C. Whitney, in Chicago, USA.

Image

This picture scan, is an excerpt from my copy the J. C. Whitney Catalogue No. 442D, dated 1984, which was given to me nearly 35 years ago, by an American student named Eberhard Montieth, when he was studying for an M.Sc., at Cranfield Institute of Technology, in Great Britain.

The picture shows an accessory, door-mounted, external, twin-lens, rear-view mirror, of a type which bears some similarities, to those patented and manufactured, by Zanetti GmbH, in Switzerland, for vehicles such as the 1968~79 VW Type 2, 1980~92 VW Vanagon, 1975-onward VW LT, plus other marques & models.

The J. C. Whitney marketed, twin-lens mirror, plus the matching single-lens plane or convex mirrors, were said to have swivelling mirror heads, making them suitable for both left-hand and right-hand door mounting.

I wonder if these twin-lens mirrors are still available?

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Regards.

Nigel A. Skeet

Independent tutor of mathematics, physics, technology & engineering, for secondary, tertiary, further & higher education.

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=308177758

Upgraded 1974 Triumph Toledo 1300 (Toledo / Dolomite HL / Sprint hybrid)

Onetime member + magazine editor & technical editor of Volkswagen Type 2 Owners' Club


Last edited by naskeet on Thu Mar 14, 2019 4:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Wed Mar 13, 2019 10:36 pm 
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The original door mirrors were WINGARD's

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Triumph Dolomite Sprint,RNK 957W

Built 26/6/1980 (one of the last built), Auto, Porcelain White - Genuine Mileage 52,820 (warranted).

Only 3 previous owners, (2 within the same family).

Supplied by Lavender Hill Garage Ltd, Enfield, London, by garage owner Jimmy Metcalfe on 30th September 1980 to Geoffery Robinson, Enfield.

Club Membership No: 2017092


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 2:46 am 
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I have a drivers door mirror fitted on my 78 Sprint. Trouble is, it’s fitted in a location which doesn’t allow the quarter light to open :roll: Another example of BL design genius or fitted at a later date?


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:33 am 
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Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire
My early sprint had two front wing mounted mirrors.
I bought it in 1975 from the sales manager at the local Triumph dealership. He had owned it from new. It was registered in Reading
I guess the mirrors and radio aerials were dealer fitted. My radio aerial was on the offside rear wing.
Image

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PostPosted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 10:27 am 
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Quote:
The original door mirrors were WINGARD's
It depends on initially where the dealers, and later, the factory, sourced them from. I've seen Desmo, Tex, Wingard and others fitted


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 4:24 pm 
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At the time of purchase, the Toledo was equipped with a Wingard, ceiling-mounted, black-plastic, interior rear-view mirror and a single stainless-steel TEX door-mirror fitted to the offside (i.e. driver’s side) door, but I felt handicapped by the lack of a rear-view mirror on the nearside; especially when driving on motorways, dual-carriageways, roundabouts or one-way streets, where rearward vision on the nearside can often be critical and looking over one’s left shoulder isn’t always safe or practical.

After approximately two years of regularly travelling to and from Cranfield at the weekends (i.e. Friday & Sunday evenings), over an 80 mile cross-country route, I had become wearied by not having a nearside, external rear-view door mirror (unlike our 1973 VW 1600 Type 2 campervan, on which it was a standard factory fitment), so it was fortunate that on one of my visits to Halfords, during autumn 1983, I came across a TEX brand, stainless-steel, offside accessory door-mirror, of a similar pattern to my existing TEX, stainless-steel, offside door-mirror.

Although at first glance, the accessory mirror appeared almost identical, there were noticeable differences as follows:

• Convex, blue-tinted anti-dazzle lens, instead of plane, un-tinted lens;
• Black-plastic contoured mounting-gasket, instead of white-plastic gasket;
• Different shape of mirror-housing mounting base.

Recognising the advantage of having convex, blue-tinted anti-dazzle lenses and not wishing to have non-matching mirrors, I bought a matching pair of the TEX brand, stainless-steel, offside & nearside accessory door-mirrors and kept my original offside mirror as a spare. The details marked on the original packaging, were as follows:

TEX Parts Ltd.
Witney Trading Estate
Station Lane
Witney
Oxfordshire
OX8 6YD.

TEX ‘ANTI-DAZZLE’ Door Mirror
Part No. M68890 – –
RIGHT HAND CONVEX POLISHED

TEX ‘ANTI-DAZZLE’ Door Mirror
Part No. M68891 – –
LEFT HAND CONVEX POLISHED

With both of these fitted, I felt much more confident on the roads, having eliminated at least some of the rear-quarter blind-spots. The tinted anti-dazzle feature, was also much appreciated during night driving, when cars approaching from behind with their headlamps on main beam, had previously been the major source of glare - visual discomfort. Sometimes I experienced similar discomfort, from low winter-sun.

I would also have appreciated an interior rear-view mirror, with an anti-dazzle feature, but at that time was unaware that at least some Triumph Dolomite models were equipped with a “dipping” interior rear-view mirror, one of which I have since acquired.

For my own interest, I recently did an Internet search to see what I could find regarding the TEX door mirrors. It appears that the same accessory door mirrors, with the same part numbers, fitted with convex, tinted mirror lenses, are still available. Not only that, but there are mirrors of the same type in black-painted finish, rather than polished stainless-steel, albeit with slightly different part numbers. One can also obtain spare parts for the mirrors.

Door Mirror - Polished Stainless Steel - M68XXX

https://www.motoringclassics.co.uk/inde ... 68891.html

Tex Door Mirror - Black - M68XXXE

https://www.motoringclassics.co.uk/tex- ... rror-black

Tex Replacement Glass - M977XXQ

https://www.motoringclassics.co.uk/replacement-glass


https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01ANT6DCQ/ ... 526_931641

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01ANTBQYQ/ ... 581_931857


http://texautomotive.com/classic_exterior_mirrors.html

http://texautomotive.com/classic_mirror_spares.html

http://texautomotive.com/mirror_glass.html

The TEX company’s current contact details, are as follows:

Tex Automotive Limited
Cotswold Business Park
Range Road
Witney
Oxfordshire
OX29 0YB
England

Tel: +44 (0)1993 893500

Fax: +44 (0)1993 707222

Email: info@texautomotive.com

Website: http://texautomotive.com

Had there been mirrors available, of an appropriate size and fitting, for the Triumph Toledo front doors and/or front wings, I would have preferred to retro-fit and/or substitute, Zanetti or other brand of twin-lens mirrors (i.e. two mirrors in a single housing, positioned relative to one another at a fixed pre-set angle), about which I had learned several years earlier.

I was able to obtain one of a commercial-vehicle type, to substitute onto our 1973 VW Type 2 campervan. Nowadays, most if not all large commercial-vans, are factory-fitted with twin-lens mirrors. Used in conjunction with a Fresnel lens attached to the inside surface of the rear window, these twin-lens door mirrors, virtually eliminate the rear-quarter blind-spots.

A few years later, I salvaged from a Ford Transit, owned by one of the workshop technicians at Cranfield, some genuine wing-mounted, hinged-stem, Zanetti, twin-lens, towing mirrors, which he didn’t want, of a size that were more appropriate to a car than a commercial-van. When I commented upon them, he said that he intended to replace them and I could have them at no cost, provided I removed them without causing any damage to the vehicle. That was a challenge I couldn’t resist!

Although the stainless-steel mirror housings were in near-perfect condition, the chrome-plated, cast-alloy mirror-stems were badly blistered and there were non-original, substitute screw fittings which were not very secure, so I have still yet to resolve, whether these mirrors can be adequately refurbished, and if necessary adapted, for use on my Triumph Toledo. It might be possible to obtain alternative mounting-stems which are compatible with the Zanetti mirror housings.

_________________
Regards.

Nigel A. Skeet

Independent tutor of mathematics, physics, technology & engineering, for secondary, tertiary, further & higher education.

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=308177758

Upgraded 1974 Triumph Toledo 1300 (Toledo / Dolomite HL / Sprint hybrid)

Onetime member + magazine editor & technical editor of Volkswagen Type 2 Owners' Club


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 5:32 pm 
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I've known my 1977 1850HL since it was three years old and it has always had a single black door mirror on the driver's side. It was mounted as far forward as possible without stopping the 1/4 window from opening. I don't know if it was factory or dealer fitted.

I din't like the black finish, so have fitted a pair of stainless steel Tex mirrors. I found the supplied expanding plastic peg fitting wasn't secure enough and have used small screws with nuts on the inside. They work well.


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(1969 MGB GTV8, 1977 Dolomite 1850HL, 1971 MGB roadster now all three on the road)
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 5:33 pm 
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Love the handbrake Mike... :lol:

Tony.

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PostPosted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:25 pm 
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Quote:
. I found the supplied expanding plastic peg fitting wasn't secure enough and have used small screws with nuts on the inside. They work well.
The reason for the less secure method back in the day, was so the door mirror would break off easier, rather than having a firmer hold and damaging the door more.

_________________
Triumph Dolomite Sprint,RNK 957W

Built 26/6/1980 (one of the last built), Auto, Porcelain White - Genuine Mileage 52,820 (warranted).

Only 3 previous owners, (2 within the same family).

Supplied by Lavender Hill Garage Ltd, Enfield, London, by garage owner Jimmy Metcalfe on 30th September 1980 to Geoffery Robinson, Enfield.

Club Membership No: 2017092


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 8:09 pm 
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Quote:
Quote:
. I found the supplied expanding plastic peg fitting wasn't secure enough and have used small screws with nuts on the inside. They work well.
The reason for the less secure method back in the day, was so the door mirror would break off easier, rather than having a firmer hold and damaging the door more.
Nah, it was because they were dealer fitted, and the last thing they wanted to do was strip the doors down to get to the inside of the skin.


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:12 pm 
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Quote:
Love the handbrake Mike... :lol:

Tony.
Ha ha. We had to remove the brake drums and disc pads just to get it out of my brother-in-law's garage where it had sat for 24 years. Now it is fully functional, quite smart, and is a very nice car to use, albeit a bit noisy compared to a modern saloon. Oh, and the brakes will stop you, but you have to plan ahead. Amazing to fit such inadequate items on a sports saloon. You southerners will be able to see it at the TSSC display at Silverstone Classic, as I plan to bring it down from Scotland (and take it back again).

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Mike
(1969 MGB GTV8, 1977 Dolomite 1850HL, 1971 MGB roadster now all three on the road)


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