This is the GF’s car. The rear view mirror is glued onto the windshield, at least until the glue fails, which is a ± five-year event. For several reasons I would like to replace it with a ceiling-mounted mirror. Sellers on the Internet are a danger to mental health: little info, won’t answer questions, push at me cameras and radar detectors &c all above my pay grade technically and economically. All I want is a mirror, preferably a day/night flipper, that is to the ceiling screwed and not to the windshield glued. But how practicable is this? What would I need to do to persuade the Probe to accept a mirror with alien DNA, and what mirror would be best for it?
Glass shops replace mirrors all the time and they seem to stay on for a long time. If you use the right adhesive from a parts house it should hold . Or just have a glass shop do it for you.
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The one the factory installed glued in place with a product designed for this purpose. Considering this car is 26 years old, is re-gluing the mirror every 5 years really that big of a chore?
I see the alternative - screwed to the roof - as an opportunity to poke holes through the roof panel to let rain in as well as end up with a mirror that won’t work properly.
I was just picturing…three big ol lag bolts thru the roof and into a piece of 2x4 on the ceiling.
Make the 2X4 big enough there’s all kinds of things to mount to that baby.
Yosemite
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Why not just install the rear view mirror correctly?
Mark the outside of the windshield with a grease pencil where the mirror mounts.
Scrape off any adhesive from inside the windshield with a razor blade and follow up with brake cleaner on a rag to remove any residue.
Do the same thing with the medallion that mounts to the windshield.
Apply https://www.gorillatough.com/product/gorilla-epoxy/ to the medallion, place it on the inside of the windshield in line the grease pencil marks, and hold the medallion in place with masking tape.
After an hour, remove the tape, mount the mirror, and wipe off the grease pencil marks from the outside of the windshield.
Tester
I think I’ve only had one mirror come off. I used the Locktite mirror glue and it stayed put. I’ve also had windshields replaced and the mirror glued in place and never really had a failure. I think I would try that again but follow the directions precisely with cleaning and so on, or have a glass shop do it.
As far as mounting one like the old days, I see a couple problems. They used to have metal trim instead of plastic above the windshield, plus they may have had a spot welded bracket to screw into behind the trim. Really there is nothing to screw to that would be solid. Second, even if you could screw to something solid, you’ll have a problem with the mirror mount matching the contour of the molding. I’d be more inclined to mount the thing on the dash like Chrysler used to do but I’m not sure how solid that is either, so just glue it every five years.
I’ve glued a few on and @Tester gave great directions.
The only addition I would make is to be sure you glue the medallion on “Right side Up”.
My first one I glued on upside down.
Yosemite
I used to have this problem with my truck’s mirror, it would fall off after 3-5 years. Used the special type of super-glue for auto mirrors. Not that big of a deal, but annoying. Last time, about 3 years ago, I decided to try using an epoxy glue, JB Weld is what I used, applied in a manner similar to what Tester posts above. I rigged up a way to forcefully clamp the little button in place for 3 days, rather than just using tape, but the same idea. So far so good. I really doubt it will ever fall off again, given my prior experience w/JB Weld. One downside to this method, if it does fall off, it will probably chip or even crack the windshield. But life’s a gamble, right? 