How to: 410customs - Square Mirror Mod

[410Fortune]

I present to you the square mirror modification for 95-01 Explorer, Mountaineer, 02-04 Sport and Sport Trac (and more).

Let’s face it, the old tiny round side
Mirrors are outdated!
The 06-11 Ranger side mirrors are far superior in styling and vision.

After many many years of having explorer and now a daily driven sport trac I got tired of the looks of the old so I did something about it

What this does:
Connects 2006-2011 ford ranger side
Mirrors with your trucks mirror base

This modification requires cutting up two sets of mirrors
Your factory ones
And
The new Ranger mirrors

How I did it:

First up I removed the factory blah mirrors
Remove door panel and speaker to access 11mm mirror mounting nuts and the power wiring harness

Once factory blah Mirror is on bench I grabbed my multi tool. Perfect for chop cut plastic bits. Mirror shown is 2002 explorer sport trac.

We need the mirror base and wiring pigtail

Cut the mounting “peg” off here
I already built a prototype
From Junk yard parts and then the drivers side so I knew where to slice

Now you end up with this

Spend time here to shave the mounting base nice and flat

The blah mirror hits the bottom of the trash can.

Set your now shaved flat base aside and get out your brand spanking new 06-11
Ranger mirror. Available at your local junk yard, or favorite online retailer. I chose some 2010 style, both sides power (to match my sport trac) and these have a snap on “paintable panel” (so they can be body matched)
I have also been known to add muth mirror systems heated glass and led turn signal
Glass and (even birdseye view cameras… but that is for another thread)

Anyways 2010 Ranger passenger mirror

You need to carefully tilt the glass so that the little plastic tabs that hold the mirror to the power base are accessible

I used a very bright led headlight for this, turns out a flathead screwdriver is all that’s needed

Careful here! I broke a Muth mirror once that was a $220 mistake

We end up with this

Now Jump down over our buddy @Stic-o and checkout the rest

 

[Stic-o]

Following....

Sorry, I got excited...

 

[410Fortune]

Now we need to separate the ranger
Mirror from its base
See the gold spring and plastic peg? If you line up the mirror in its home position (the folding portion of the mirror) and you twist that peg the mirror halves release

Like this

Have a firm grip the spring is loaded

Congrats you didn’t break the glass and your mirror is apart! Carefully feed the wiring through.. it will go

Set these parts aside. We are going to focus on modifying the ranger mirror base (the portion that bolts to the truck

I use a scribe to Mark my cutting Line so it stays even all the way around.

We are after this portion of the ranger base. We need the mirror pivot mounting peg and its flat base. We need it to be approx 1/4” thick for best mirror alignment

Part was smoothed on a belt sander to be nice and flat with rounded corners

Now we are going to mount our new piece from the ranger mirror to the sport trac truck base. I used 3 stainless screws and a counter sink drill bit. The piece is carefully lined up by testing the fit with the mirror. Once you have your location
Mark the holes on the base and screw them together. I also introduce e6000 hobby glue to ensure a forever fit

This is how the piece we chopped pit fits the ranger mirror

Alignment. I have built a couple of these now. The alignment is pretty obvious. Our new “through hole” basically lines up with the backside of the sport tracs smaller through hole

Final location all screws tight and epoxy set

 

[410Fortune]

Now that the truck side
Mirror base has been modified to fit the ranger glass we will need one more bit from the ranger
Mirror. We are going to create a cosmetic cover that will snap in place and cover the gap created on our modded base.

Lucky for us the ranger mirror is about 1/2 thicker so this all works out fantastically

Get the ranger mirror base
I scribed a line of where I plan to cut,
Masking tape helped also mark the locations for rough cut

Here is the piece we are after

Need to chop out these tabs

This is how it fits over your modified truck base

Spent some time with a flat file and emery cloth, flatten and polish the edges

Now this piece actually snaps into place. It slides like a sleeve over the old sport trac base

This is how the spring and peg lock in place

Crazy right? Lots of trail and error went into this final design

Now to put the mirror back together

This is the fun part…. I used two zip ties to load up my spring. Ties are a 180 degrees apart for a reason, it holds tight

Lots of tension!

Here is how the peg lines up and locks when you twist

Remember with the mirror in its home
Position the peg can be inserted fully and then twisted 45 degrees to lock in place. I used pliers for this. Once I know the peg is set I cut the zip ties with snips and a xacto for the rear one

Whole mirror assembled. 2010
Ranger power mirror mounted to modified 2002 Sport trac base

I then wired up the 10
Mirror to the 02 pigtail
3 wires
Common (yellow),
Up/down motor (purple) and left/right motor (green)

Carefully snap the glass back to the power base, carefully line it up and then a form press around the middle is all that is needed

Mount the mirror to the truck, plug in the wiring and test the motors

My mirrors have this paint to match panel, they snap in place. I will be priming these and painting them white to match the truck


Very very happy with the results

 

[Fix4Dirt]

Now we need to separate the ranger
Mirror from its base
See the gold spring and plastic peg? If you line up the mirror in its home position (the folding portion of the mirror) and you twist that peg the mirror halves release

Like this

View attachment 457214

View attachment 457215

View attachment 457216

Have a firm grip the spring is loaded

View attachment 457217

View attachment 457218

Congrats you didn’t break the glass and your mirror is apart! Carefully feed the wiring through.. it will go

Set these parts aside. We are going to focus on modifying the ranger mirror base (the portion that bolts to the truck

View attachment 457221

I use a scribe to Mark my cutting Line so it stays even all the way around.


View attachment 457222

We are after this portion of the ranger base. We need the mirror pivot mounting peg and its flat base. We need it to be approx 1/4” thick for best mirror alignment

View attachment 457223



View attachment 457219

Part was smoothed on a belt sander to be nice and flat with rounded corners

View attachment 457225

Nice!!! I want tow mirrors on mine, haha. It'd look stupid though.

 

[410Fortune]

Improved vision on each side and updated styling.

Next I will be adding the muth mirror systems glass with heaters and led turn signals

 

[Rick]

That really turned out great. This is a very nice update for the Sport Trac.

 

[410Fortune]

Thank you

Should work on 91-94 explorer and 93-97 ranger. Just have to use the same principal to modify the existing truck side base

 

[dvdswan]

Nice writeup. Info you can use for sure.

 

[Stic-o]

Ok, dumb question...how far off is the square mirror mount from the Explorer mount? Are they a totally different shape at the door? Curious, but I'm sure you would not go through all the of this if you could just drill some new holes in the door.

 

[410Fortune]

Way different at the base

Before I ever even attempted this I studied other fords for a solution
Gen iii no work
People said the next sport trax mirror would work, (07+) wrong same mirror as f150 base not even close to same size or shape
Ranger and Mazda b series doors shaped way differently


01-05 sport and sport trac use same
Mirror as 95-01 sploder
However the sport trax base is smoother (no trim)
The biggest upgrade before this was to add the puddle lamp mirrors from an Eddie or limited.


This the way

98-11 ranger door base vs 02 sport trac

02 sport trac mirror held up next to 98 explorer 4 door mirror. Same same just updated looks 02-04


There are no dumb questions

 

[Fordtruckfan89]

How are you gonna run the additional wires from the door to body on the drivers side? Has that weird connnector

 

[410Fortune]

I put heat, signals, and cameras in the side mirrors of a 2007 ranger recently

I ran the group of new wires with the dash all apart door panels out and door wiring boots disconnected… on that truck I used coat hanger and once I had one wire through I used it to pull the others

The explorer still has a rubber boot… similar to running speaker wires

I even mounted the rocker switch for the heated glass on the drivers door panel, that the was biggest challenge of that job…

 

[Fordtruckfan89]

Look between the door itself and the body. It's got a big plastic quick disconnect with a bolt in it, atleast on a 03 Trac it does

 

[410Fortune]

Ah yes This dude. Yes that does make it more tricky
I believe in the past I was able to pass speaker wires through this, if not I’ll go next to it, through it under it w zip ties

 

[Fordtruckfan89]

I added puddle lights to my stock ones( HF Rock lights) and it was a pain but doable, added pins and wires to the connector. If it was easier id add the muth signal mirrors to it.

 

[Stic-o]

Ah yes This dude. Yes that does make it more tricky
I believe in the past I was able to pass speaker wires through this, if not I’ll go next to it, through it under it w zip ties

View attachment 457316

I actually retrofited this guy into a first gen. That was fun

Thanks for clearing up the difference in mirror design.

 

[BluIsBlue]

Slow your roll 410, I thought the process to upgrade was similar to just upgrading an old ranger’s mirrors to the newer rangers mirrors. Other write ups seem to have a lot less modification going on. I may be mistaken though as I’ve yet to play around with all of this (mostly because I don’t want to give up my puddle lights and the option of heated mirrors)

 

[BluIsBlue]

I put heat, signals, and cameras in the side mirrors of a 2007 ranger recently

I ran the group of new wires with the dash all apart door panels out and door wiring boots disconnected… on that truck I used coat hanger and once I had one wire through I used it to pull the others

The explorer still has a rubber boot… similar to running speaker wires

I even mounted the rocker switch for the heated glass on the drivers door panel, that the was biggest challenge of that job…

View attachment 457308

View attachment 457309

View attachment 457310

View attachment 457311

View attachment 457312

View attachment 457313

View attachment 457314

View attachment 457315

Also here, if on a generic explorer (with the heated rear window on the liftgate) would it be more sensible to wire the heated mirrors up to the rear defrost switch?

 

[410Fortune]

Slow your roll 410, I thought the process to upgrade was similar to just upgrading an old ranger’s mirrors to the newer rangers mirrors. Other write ups seem to have a lot less modification going on. I may be mistaken though as I’ve yet to play around with all of this (mostly because I don’t want to give up my puddle lights and the option of heated mirrors)

Other write ups? What are you talking about?
I am confused.
The square mirrors do not just bolt up to an explorer or sport trac. They bolt onto earlier rangers sure… but that is not what this is.

Yes you could wire the heated glass to the rear defroster switch, I Like that idea.