For those who drive their classic Mustangs on a regular basis, quite often the wish list of modern conveniences and safety items grows while rolling down the road. All it takes is one person stopping short in front of you to add better brakes to said list, or trying to parallel park at a cruise night to write down "power steering" as well. That list of convenience and safety items can grow quite lengthy and entail some serious expense for some of the items on the list, but there are certainly several items you can check off as a weekend project without breaking the bank and still feel safer when you drive your classic in today’s distracted driving environment on our over crowded streets and highways.
One particular problem we’ve encountered while highway driving is inattentive drivers in our blind spot. Apparently, they don't teach "if you can’t see me, I can’t see you" in driver's ed these days because it is a big problem on our roads. Many new cars include some sort of turn signal repeater on the side of the vehicle to alert blind spot squatters that a car is changing lanes.
Ford originally started using in-mirror turn signal repeaters in the early 1990s. Shaped like an arrow (chevron), they illuminated whenever the turn signals were activated. Later, Ford moved to repeaters at the end, or at the base, of the mirror housing itself. Today, Ford has added their Blind Spot Information System (BLIS) that now tells you when a car is in your blind spot area via a radar based system which illuminates an LED in your side mirror and also displays a warning on your dash.
While it would be great to incorporate the BLIS system into our classic cars, along with other new technologies like speed sensitive cruise control and heads up displays, we’re most likely a good five to ten years before those items will trickle down into the aftermarket for upgrading older cars—if it will even be possible at all, as some systems will require numerous modules, wiring, and inputs to update a classic. But adding turn signal repeaters is very possible, as all you have to do is tap into your stock turn signal wiring. But where do you mount them so they don’t look out of place on a classic Mustang? That’s the real question. You don’t want some bulbous amber light sticking out of your front fender, right?
Enter the masters of LED lighting, Mustang Project. Leave it to the Mustang Project guys to come up with a solution that offers safety and classic looks that look like they belong on a vintage Mustang, all by tying them into vintage Mustang mirror housings. Mustang Project offers two different versions of their LED turn signal mirrors. Based off Scott Drake mirror assemblies, Mustang Project adds their patented electronics and 12 bright LEDs per mirror. We're installing their more traditional deluxe-style turn signal mirrors, which replicate the deluxe remote mirror option—part number MP-8001-RD. Mustang Project also offers a new Bullet mirror, as used on Shelby Mustangs and Cobras in the '60s, under MP-BULLET-MIR. Both mirror sets simply attach in place of the original stock mirrors and require a minimum of wiring. In just an hour or two, you’ll have these mirrors in place and will be much safer going down the highway.
1 For wire routing purposes,...
1 For wire routing purposes, you'll need access to the kick panel area of your Mustang. Removing the kick panels means removing the door sill plates first, as they lay on top of the kick panel when installed. Remove the vertical Phillips head screws securing the door sill plate first.
2 Finish your screw removal...
2 Finish your screw removal with the horizontal Phillips head screws along the rocker. The one screw in the middle will require a "stubby" Phillips driver, right angle driver, or Phillips head bit in a ratchet to extract.
3 With the door sill out...
3 With the door sill out of the way, remove any screws securing your kick panel (and any speaker wiring if you have a kick panel speaker setup) and pull the kick panel off the pinch weld. Repeat these last few steps to remove the passenger-side door sill plate and kick panel too.
4 You'll need to remove the...
4 You'll need to remove the driver’s door panel (at a minimum, more on that shortly) to route the deluxe mirror remote control cable. For deluxe interiors, use a 5⁄32-inch Allen wrench to remove the screws holding the door handle and window crank in place.
5 For earlier cars with clip-on...
5 For earlier cars with clip-on handles, you'll either need to borrow or purchase a door handle clip tool (or fabricate your own) like the one here. The tool is placed behind the handle and used to release the retaining clip on the handle shaft.
6 With deluxe door panels,...
6 With deluxe door panels, you'll find two Phillips head screws under the rubber pad at the bottom of the door pull cup. For base interior door panels, there are two fasteners that secure the armrest to the door, which need to be removed.
7 If your Mustang already...
7 If your Mustang already wears a deluxe mirror on the driver side, you’ll need to remove the control knob and cover from the door panel too. A pair of needle nose pliers will be your friend here when removing the control cables from the control knob.
8 Double-check that you didn't...
8 Double-check that you didn't miss any retaining screws or trim items, then carefully pry the door panel from the door shell using a suitable panel tool. We like this nylon wedge type, as the wedge easily separates the door panel from the door without scratching the Mustang's painted door surface.
9 With the door panel removed,...
9 With the door panel removed, you should see a paper water shield on your door shell. If not, do yourself a favor and pick up your favorite Mustang vendor’s catalog to order a set along with some 3M Bedding & Glazing Compound to glue the shields in place. If you’re really careful, you can remove your existing shield and reuse it.
10 Removing the driver-side...
10 Removing the driver-side stock mirror is a simple matter of removing the two Phillips head retaining screws and carefully pulling the mirror free of the door. If it is a deluxe mirror, then be sure to guide the control cables out so they don't scratch the paint.
11 The new LED mirror from...
11 The new LED mirror from Mustang Project comes with the control knob already attached to the control cables of the mirror. To prevent frustration later, take the time now to mark the control cable locations before removing the cables. We simply put numbers correlating to dots we made on the cables, but colored tape or touch-up paint will work too.
12 Since our Mustang had...
12 Since our Mustang had deluxe mirrors, we didn’t need to drill a hole for the control cables, but if you are upgrading from a base mirror you’ll need to drill a large enough hole to pass the control cables and the LED's power wire through.
13 With the mirror secured...
13 With the mirror secured to the door, there's nothing from its outward appearance to tell that there’s a cool LED signal embedded within the mirror glass. Note that the glass will seat further into the mirror housing once the control cables are reconnected.
14 The LED power wire needs...
14 The LED power wire needs to be routed to the passenger compartment from the door shell. Drilling a pass-through hole can be accomplished easily with a drill bit extension from inside the door shell. The body side is even easier, with direct access to the doorjamb from inside. Be sure to use the included wire grommets when routing the wiring through metal. Since we had the deluxe interior wiring harness in place already, we simply made a slit in the harness grommets and passed the wiring through with the help of a pick tool.
15 The finished routing doesn't...
15 The finished routing doesn't look bad, and if you really want you can wrap the wires with electrical tape to conceal them.
16 On the passenger side,...
16 On the passenger side, the deluxe "dummy" mirror was removed and a new hole drilled for the LED's power wire to be passed through on that side. Use the mirror base gasket as a guide to determine where to drill the hole.
17 Remember when we mentioned...
17 Remember when we mentioned earlier about only removing the driver's door panel? Well, we had an idea that we could fish the LED power wire out of the passenger door shell without removing the door panel. No lie, this is our first try with a wire coat hanger and we snagged the mirror wire easily!
18 Route the mirror power...
18 Route the mirror power wires to the left side of the dash however you see fit. Our passenger-side wire was neatly routed under the carpet along the base of the firewall. The included quick-taps are used to connect the mirror power wires to the left and right turn signal wiring. The instructions call for connecting these wires in the left kick panel area, but we opted to route them under the dash.
19 Mustang Project includes...
19 Mustang Project includes their new "click" flasher that functions properly for LED systems, yet has that tell-tale classic click-click sound to remind you that your turn signals are on. It replaces the original-style thermal flasher and will work with your regular incandescent front and rear turn signals (though the mirror works and looks better with LED taillights).
20 Connect the red and green...
20 Connect the red and green wires to the original flasher wiring (if properly installed the flasher is mounted to the back of the driver-side fresh air vent) per the included instructions. The third wire on the flasher unit is a ground wire and must be connected to a clean ground for the flasher to work. After positioning the flasher, we had enough wire length to connect the ground to one of the fuse box mounting screws.
21 The last thing to do is...
21 The last thing to do is reassemble your door panel(s) and connect the deluxe remote mirror's adjustment knob to the adjuster cables. If your Mustang didn’t originally have a deluxe mirror, you will have to trim your door panel accordingly to fit the adjustment knob. There's usually a knockout on the door panel to show you where the adjustment knob goes as well.
A Speeding Bullet
Just as we were going to press, Mustang Project dropped this photo in our inbox. As we mentioned in our opening text, the universally loved Shelby bullet mirror styling now comes with bright LED turn signals embedded in the mirror glass with either red or amber LED indicators. The '65-'66 deluxe mirrors might look out of place on your '69 SportsRoof, but there’s no denying that the Shelby bullet looks good on anything! So now you have your choice of the more traditional '65-'66 Mustang deluxe mirror or the Shelby bullet for your installation.