This week’s post is rather brief, but that’s because things flowed very smoothly, and I didn’t encounter a single hiccup. So it can happen. For those keeping score, it’s happened for me exactly once.
In my initial review of the El Kylemino, I noted the driver’s door had a (mechanical) mirror remote control, and added this comment:
“On a side note, the ’86 and ’87 El Camino use the same sport mirror housing as the Camaro and Corvette. “
In this post, you’ll see why that’s important information.
Cable controlled rear view mirror- Effective but affected by outside forces
When I bought the car, the cable style driver’s remote still worked fine, but there was no remote adjustment provision for the passenger side, and like many mirrors using cable controls, momentum tended to move the mirror when you closed the driver door, forcing you to frequently readjust the mirror.
Old style mirror on left, Camaro/Corvette/Fiero style on the right
After some online study, I determined the El Camino never offered electric power mirrors, but in 1985 or ’86 Chevy changed the mirror shape to match the housings used in Corvettes, Camaro/Firebirds, and Fieros, all of which offered an electric mirror option. Each car used a slightly different mount, but the housing shape and mirror mounting points were common to all. With this information in hand, a trip to the junkyard provided me with the needed parts.
Typical GM panel mirror switches
Unfortunately, all of these cars used a panel type power mirror switch, which did not match up to my door panel. To solve this problem, I discovered the switch from an ’89 Caprice fit perfectly in the El Camino’s adjustment knob bezel. As I said, no hiccups.
Needed parts- Note the knob type control switch
This picture shows the parts I gathered to mount the power mirrors – 1 control switch, 2 mirror motor pods, and the harness to tie it all together.
Pretty much every basic power mirror control system out there.
’80s era GMs with optional power mirrors used a stand alone power mirror harness, so I pulled one out of a junkyard A-body. During installation, one wire must connect to power, and the ground lug must bolt to a body ground. Beyond that, the harness was self-contained. Did I mention this was a very simple project?
On a car without power windows or power door locks, Chevy leaves off the rubber wire conduit between the door and the A-pillar. As everyone who mounted door speakers back in high school remembers, you can run wires from the door to the body without these parts. However, I’m a big fan of factory engineering, and the conduit prevents pinched wires, so I grabbed a pair off a G-body hoping my car had the needed openings.
Typical body plug
Sure enough, no worries a all. All openings were present, covered by neat plastic covers. I pried them off, popped in the conduit, and routed the harness into the door.
Red housing- Mounting points — Black housing- Mounting bracket — Brown housing-Mirror actuator
With the parts on hand and the conduit in place, it was time to mount the electric actuators. On both sides, the manually adjusted mirror mounted using three screws. To mount power mirrors a triangular shaped bracket fits here, then the actuator attaches to the bracket.
Actuator on the left, Mirror back on the right
To adjust the mirrors, the actuator contains two motors. To mate to the motors, the back of the mirror contains a 2-axis pivot, and two screw posts to engage the motor.
As the final step, I made sure to tightly mount the harnesses inside the door panels. Since GM never installed power mirrors in the El Camino, the harness did not include the needed tie-downs. I bought a couple of cable clamps from the hardware store, and used them to mount the wiring. This is a very important step- If either window snags the harness while traveling up and down, it may separate the connectors, or even damage the wiring.
With the mirror installed, all the technology gets covered up…
With the harness in place and the actuators mounted in the mirror housings, I snapped the mirrors in place, and the El Kylemino gained power adjustable mirrors on both sides!
By the way, I discovered some exciting news this week (well,exciting for me…). During the second week of October, the National El Camino Owners Club will be celebrating the El Camino’s sixtieth Anniversary in Arlington, Texas. The El Kylemino will be there, and if you’re interested in seeing hundreds of El Caminos in one location here’s the details: The El Camino 60th Anniversary Celebration
Nice work! I wish I had someone like you to help me sort out the various electrical gremlins on my VW.
The El Camino’s 60th anniversary celebration sounds cool. I hope you’ll cover that event for all of us!
Once again, a great lesson, nicely written up.
Happy for you that the big GM parts bin supplies all the workarounds—and that you’re able to find what fits and works–and that your junkyard “stocks” all of these,
Yeah, I think I remember adding door or rear panel speakers 40-50 years, and learning about bad grounds, no tiedowns, water damage, etc….
“Happy for you that the big GM parts bin supplies all the workarounds”
Yep- It’s amazing how similar the A and B bodies became after they were downsized in the late seventies, but GM used common parts across all platforms. In this project, I used a harness and mirror motors from a late A-body (FWD), a control switch from a B-body, mirror housing brackets out of a Corvette, and the mirror faces out of an F-body.
“and that your junkyard “stocks” all of these”
I actually tap into a dozen junkyards in the LA area, using an online part locator. Every Friday night I review the new arrivals on the web, and if anything interesting pops up, I’ll run out and try to grab any needed parts. At present my success rate is about 50%, as the cars are often picked clean by the time I get there.
“At present my success rate is about 50%, as the cars are often picked clean by the time I get there.”
I know what you mean, I’ve got Row 52 giving me alerts for vehicles of interest in my area. The problem is when the vehicle gets set on Mon or Tue and I can’t make it there until Thur or Fri.
My bigger problem concerning upgrades and the like is that I refreshed my work truck fleet a couple of years ago and they are too new/worth too much, to be common in the self serve yards around here. So yeah by the time I get the email even if I can make it to the yard that afternoon the Super Dutys are already picked over, while the rest of us Vultures circle the vehicle looking for scraps or the part that got stashed in a near by vehicle so that it could be retrieved later.
Very nice. I have a warm spot for the simplicity of cable controls, but certainly understand why you wanted to go electric. The electrics are certainly easier to swap out when (not if) one goes bad. Especially on the passenger side which always involved a cable working its way through to the middle of the dash panel.
Power mirrors are on the list of items I need to add to my F-250, just hasn’t made it to the top of the project list yet, though I keep looking for them in the wrecking yard. Unfortunately the Super Duty just don’t make it to the self service wrecking yards that frequently, they are just worth too much.
Im really enjoying this series, and thanks for the earlier piece on adding instruments. You inspired me to finally install an instrument cluster with tach into my Ranger, which is something for which I’d had all of the parts on hand for several weeks
This project is the best part of restoration and upgrade of an older car. Scrounging the junkyard to see what fits and what doesn’t is always fun to me.
’80s GM cars were so much fun to play mix-and-match with. My first car was an ’82 Pontiac J2000 LE sedan I bought a few years old, first year of the J body that was built for well over a decade and was shared by all five GM car divisions, so there were so many possibilities for junkyard-part upgrades and mods. Unfortunately back then in the pre-internet era actually tracking down those parts meant driving far from home to the nearest junkyards and just hoping they’d have something interesting.
Oh I’d love to find a nice ’06 VW Jetta with Package 3 to pick apart for upgrades to my ’07 Rabbit, where do I start? The 2.0T/ 6 speed manual (also used in GTI/GLI), 12 way power front seats with memory, leather wheel/shift boot/door trim, wood trim on dash/doors/console, satellite radio, climatronic 2 zone HVAC, HID headlamps with washers, door-open warning/puddle lamps, mirror downlights, air-conditioned console compartment, steering wheel controls & bluetooth, built-in sunshades, Homelink, rear parking beeper. Surely I missed a few, as well as Euro-market stuff like extra dash bins. Thusfar my only OEM-parts upgrade is aspherical outside mirrors which I highly recommend to anyone who drives a car sold in Europe.
Neat fix, worth doing.
And i’m looking forward to the Car Show Report from the El Camino Celebration
Nice that the holes already existed to run the wiring. When I added power windows to my ’65 Chrysler I had to drill those out. The drilling wasn’t too bad, but you have to remove both the door and the front fender to access the correct spot on the cowl.
That reminds me- Since the right side mirror did NOT have a remote control cable I hade to drill a hole in the passenger’s door panel.
No big deal- I used the mirror gasket as a template, and made sure to daub paint over the exposed sheet metal, but this step was skipped over in the article.
This is all so genius. I do not have a mechanically-inclined bone in my body, but I find this process fascinating. Looking forward to your next update, Dave.
GM interchangeability is a real boon. I have an WB Statesman brake pedal pad & boot carpet in my ’69 Skylark. Pedal pad is a perfect fit, the carpet is OK, but surprisingly close.
Thanks for the article, it’s a useful upgrade.
My base model 2000 Silverado had manually adjustable mirrors, although they were encased in a cover (unlike my base 2000 & 2003 F-150s) to keep minor bumps and fold-ins from requiring readjustment. Nice thinking on GM’s part. That said, it seemed every time I ran said Silverado through a car wash, the mirrors would get knocked out of adjustment (I would expect it on the Fords). Not wanting to roll down the windows while the truck was still wet (they would get spotty) to readjust, I would get in and out to readjust them, having to walk around the truck to adjust the passenger side. Fast forward a few years and I have a 2003 Silverado extended cab in LS trim, and currently a 2016 F-150 XL extended cab. Both trucks have power adjustable mirrors, which makes adjustments ridiculously easy. The car wash never, ever knocks them out of adjustment! Go figure.
Love it! How about some GM part #’s as everything can be cross-referenced, Chevy, Olds, Buick, Pontiac. Have been researching this same project for my “84” Hell Camino.
Bought today 2 Perfect LH & RH Mirrors from 89 I-ROC Z Camaro. Found them on Car-part.com. A1 Auto Parts, Henderson, NV. They are cutting the wires past the connectors in the door, I’ll make my own wiring harness! Perfect, Thanks Anna for your assistance! Great price and fair shipping! Threw in the switch from the Camaro, but I will use the EBAY one that will fit the stock mounting plate for the cable control.
do you have the El Camino elec. mirror for the passenger side door with switch and misc. parts?
I’m interested for sport bullet mirrors remote RH -LH as shown on your web page, will they fit 1986 El Camino? And what is your cost?