My All-Trac's rear-view mirror wouldn't flip with that tab on the bottom, which would irritate me at night (even though my windows are tinted pretty darkly).  So rather than just replace the mirror with another Corolla mirror, I decided to go another route.

I used to own two Lebaron convertibles, a 92 and a 94, at two different times of course.  If there was one thing I liked about those LeBarons, it was the rear-view mirror with maplights on the bottom edge (because you can't really have a dome light in a ragtop convertible, lol).  They would both come on like a dome light if the doors were opened, and had separate switches for each light when the doors were closed.

Anyways I went to the junkyard a few months ago and picked up a r-v mirror from a LeBaron.  It was just a matter of fabricating a custom bracket and mounting the mirror to it, then figuring out how to wire it up.  I had this bracket welded up at my job, then took it home to round off the corners and edges, then brought it back to my job to have it powder coated.



Another view of the bottom -- clickable link



A not-very-good-quality pic of the mirror test mounted in place, before it was painted -- clickable link




^ Hand-cut with a Dremel!



Another view of the "top" side which contacts the roof -- clickable link



I'm either going to paint that acorn nut ($2!!) or take it back and just cover the bolt threads with a rubbery end cap.  The acorn nut interferes with the mirror a little bit, being so close, and I didn't want to cut that bolt and ruin the threads.  I don't know.  I need something there to keep the bolt from cutting into my sun visors when I put them up.  Maybe I'll just cut the damn bolt, lol, and paint the end of it black.

The only real disadvantage of the LeBaron mirror is that it's a little narrower in the middle of the mirror (when looking into it) compared to the Corolla mirror.  But it's not that big of a deal.  The LeBaron mirror is actually a little wider.  I'll get out the calipers and measure it sometime...

My next part of this project is to wire it up.  I tried to get as much of the wiring as possible from the junkyard car, so I pulled away most of the windshield molding in order to get a good length.  I'm thinking about tapping into the dome light wiring somehow, so that these maplights come on when the doors are opened, though I don't know if I really want them to "always" be on like that (I usually keep my dome light always off).

Any suggestions for how to remove that headliner would be greatly appreciated... I haven't attempted it yet, but at least now I have the room in my own garage to put all the pieces!

If you have a fairly good grinding wheel, you can cut that bolt very slowly and gently with a hacksaw to the length you want, remove the mirror and grind the bolt so that the grinder moves in the same direction as the thread would, its called "chasing the burr" For example, like you are "threading the bolt onto the grinder wheel" is how my machine shop boss taught me. Obviously it requires a steady hand, but its very possible!

Then you will have it exactly the length you need and with working threads.

Also: GREAT JOB, map lights would be awesome! =D

Thanks!  Yeah, I think some models of our wagons have map lights on the roof between the sun visors, but mine doesn't!  And good luck to me to find an A-T in a junkyard, so this seemed like the best option.  I'd also like to replace the bulbs with LEDs, if I can find out what type of LED I would need.

The more I think about it, the more I just want to cut the bolt and paint the end of it.  I just don't want to cut too much since it only threads into the mirror a little bit.

I have small files, I suppose I could just clean up the burrs from cutting with those.  I need to get a table vise for my garage work bench...

My A-T does come with a map light, but this is an even better idea.  This I need to look into.

If you decide to go to a junkyard to fish out a r-v mirror with map lights, make sure the switches work.  I brought along one of those battery booster/jumpers (smaller, lighter than a battery) to give me a 12v supply to make sure this mirror worked.

I ended up finding a small plastic/rubbery screw cover, and slipped that over the bolt.  I'll just keep the stupid $2 acorn nut around, since I do have one other bolt that it fits.  Still need to wire this up... when I do I'll take notes and come back to this topic.

Also I'm sure there are other kinds of cars with r-v mirrors with map lights, but I don't know what ones.  Maybe one with a slightly larger mirror would be better than the LeBaron mirror.  I think it's the only thing I don't like about it, it's just slightly shorter at the middle than the Corolla one.  Not a big deal though.