It seems to fit the theme of my Avant very well: "non-flashy" or "stealth". I want my interior and exterior of the vehicle to look 'stock'. Albeit the exterior is Stock B6 S4 but its still stock.
So, I decided back in May to give this a try. Why not? What is to lose? Oh yeah, destroying a $500 mirror (due to the auto-dimming and compass feature).
With all the projects I've added to the Avant this little mod has sat on my kitchen table for the entire summer. It has sat staring me in the face and I've ignored it due to procrastination.. Procrastination because I'm worried I'd fcvk something up and be out a $500 mirror.
Anyway. I had the mirror apart back in May when I figured out how it comes off the car (rotate entire mirror assembly 90deg and it comes off the tab that is glued to the windshield).
I then managed to break just about every little clip that holds the trim ring on when I was separating the mirror halves. Those are difficult little buggers. There has got to be some special tool because a screwdriver doesn't work. Later found out you can't buy the trim ring by itself. Yummy
Bottom left corner is the most amount of space for said boost gauge.
One needs to cut out some plastic so I opted for my trusty dremel tool. Big mistake if your blood sugar is low and you have the 'shakes'. Little too much pressure with the cut-off wheel and next thing I know I've got a nice nick in the mirror itself. (very small, can only see it if you're within 4inches of the mirror). Immediately stopped using that tool.
Figured out how to break the casing on the boost gauge because I need the breadboard and the amber acrylic surrounding it.
Marked where its going and started scraping the coating off the back of the mirror. I started with a small wood chisel because it was the perfect width. That was getting no where so I opted for the dremel. Didn't I just learn my lesson? Nope. Next thing I know my dremel has gouged the glass itself. I'm fcvked. Mirror is toast now from an aesthetics standpoint.
(see scratch in center from dremel and the small nick above from the dremel cut-off wheel)
Why? I was told to use x-acto blades but that would take forever. I opted for quicker path and shot myself in the foot as a result of an attempt at speed. Some quick thinking and I realized that huge scratch is right where the decimel point will be. Not a big deal. You won't see it if you're driving or a passenger. You'll see it if the car is stationary and you're being the white-glove guy picking out every little detail wrong with the car.
Let the effer sit for a few months because I'm pissed and am contemplating what to do. Found a Saturday evening where everyone was out of town and I didn't have any dates so I decided to sit down at the kitchen table with about 10 x-acto blades and start scraping. Outlined and then little by little I scrapped the auto-dimming and mirror coating off the glass.
What do I glue it with? I opted for some plastic epoxy (stuff I used on my fog light). That turned out to be yet another mistake. The epoxy is strong stuff, stronger than required for this application. I used a conservative amount yet still had too much. It smeared all into the opening I made. I then realized that it was also eating away the amber acrylic the gage was within. Fcvk! Another set-back. I broke the acrylic apart and got the gauge out. Cleaned up the mirror and then went looking for a suitable amber acrylic. Found that and found this cool glue called "Weld Bond". This stuff is awesome and is the glue I'm using on this project (and it works!).
The gauge itself has red LEDs but if the gauge is outside the acrylic box the LEDs are visible. I didn't want them visible if the car is turned off so I bought some acrylic and went to work cutting and shaping a new 'box' to put the gauge inside.
(ignore the glue on the gage, you won't see that when finished. That was one of my trials that went south.)
Took me two attempts at getting one that fits the gauge perfectly (cutting 5 pieces: 4 sides and 1 faceplate) as you can see in the image just above.
Now on to gluing the gauge onto the mirror. Haha. Took me 6 tries to get it set so the glue wouldn't seep through. This is where I like the Weld Bond. It goes down like Elmer's (white) and dries clear. Gets tacky in a few minutes and bonds within an hour or two. Best to let it sit for 24hours for permanent bondage [beavis & butthead] huh, huh, huh. yeah. yeah! [/beavis and butthead]. If you don't like how the glue sat. Immediately pull it apart, wipe it down with a paper towel. Then wipe it down with a separate paper towel that has some Windex on it. Good as new again for the next attempt.
Had to resolder the wires because they were getting flimsy from me man-handling this thing. Once again, the blood sugar was low last night and I grabbed the wrong end of the soldering iron. Went to bed with two fingers doused in Aloe and bandaged up as if I had them cut off on a lawn mower.
(the amber acrylic makes this look nice when the car is turned off)
9volt battery hooked up to give you an idea of what it looks like when turned on:
Yes, it reads vacuum!
As you can see, this is an 'extreme close-up' and you can barely make out the huge gouge I put in the glass. In the car you won't see it. You'll be distracted by the numbers instead. Mission accomplished!
Next thing to do is to let this sit and dry for another day. Then reassemble (had to trim a little off the inside of the mirror casing back) and glue the trim ring in place with some Weld Bond. Then put back in the car, run the wire up along the headliner and down the a-piller to the wires I have in the dash coming in from the engine compartment.
It looks good. Could it be better? I think so. I know the flaws in this mod and it irks me so I won't be happy unless its 100% clean.
Would I do it again? Right now. NO. In a few months. Perhaps.
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(You have a better pic of your though)
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Originally Posted by RLB6
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