Installing the Passenger Side
Mirror on a 914

Difficulty Level 2

Difficulty scale:
Adding air to your tires is level one
Rebuilding a 911 Motor is level ten

Figure 1: 914 Outside mirror

     Andrew Greene has this to add about the right side mirror:   "On your web site, you note, or imply, that the passenger side mirror was never available, or is the same as the driver's side. While it is true that the passenger side mirror is NLA, and the driver's side is substitutable, there really was a passenger side mirror (I actually had one about 20 years ago!). You don't see them too often (I snoozed and just missed one last December). The right side unit can be identifed easily, as it has a convex glass--which makes it far more useful than putting the driver's side mirror on the right. (what I don't remember is if the early style and the later style mirrors both came in a right hand/left hand version)"

     Pelican Parts has plenty of mirrors in stock, and can provide you with everything you need to perform this upgrade.  If you have a mirror with a broken glass, we can supply you with new glass too.  You will need for this installation:

     Fortunately, Porsche thought ahead when designing the 914.  The driver side mirror is mounted by screwing the base of the mirror into two nuts that are welded on the inside of the door, just under the door skin.   For the passenger side, the same two nuts are already located there; they are covered by the metal door skin.  To install the right side mirror, you simply need to drill through the door skin, and mount the mirror.

     In order to accurately pinpoint the location of the two nuts, you need to remove the inner door panel and use a transfer punch (or a small screwdriver or nail) to create an indentation that can be used as a guide while drilling through the door skin. 

Figure 7: Holes Drilled Through Door Skin


Figure 8: 914 Mirror Shown Installed on Right Side

     To remove the door panel, you first need to remove the lower part of the passenger arm rest.  Three screws are used to hold this section in place.   The three screws can be seen in Figure 2.   After removing the screws, slide the bottom piece towards the rear of the car to remove it from the passenger side handle.  To remove the passenger side handle, you need to remove the four screws that hold the handle to the door.  These are usually held in with Allen-head bolts; their locations are shown in Figure 3.  After you have removed these four bolts, you need to remove the window crank.  Lifting off the plastic cover reveals the screw which attaches the window crank, as shown in Figure 4.  It may require a bit of force and some fingernails to remove the plastic cover.  Removing the screw allows the window crank handle to be removed.  Next you need to remove the plastic valance from around the inner door handle.  The valance slides off after removing the single screw which holds it in place.  This can be seen in Figure 5.  Now that all the screws have been removed, you need to snap the door panel off of the door.  The panel is attached at various places around its edge by plastic snap pieces, shown in Figure 6.   Carefully pull at the left, right and lower edges of the door and unsnap each one individually.  Note: the top of the panel is held on with metal clips.   Do not try to pull at the top of the door panel.  Be careful not to bend the door panel or apply too much force.  A screwdriver placed between the door and the door panel can help prevent the panel from bending.  Also be careful to make sure that the plastic snaps do not come out of the door panel.  If they do, they should be affixed to the door panel later on with a small touch of glue.  After all of the snaps are detached from the door, the panel should swing up from the bottom and can be lifted up and away from the door.

     There may be a clear plastic sheet that covers the door and protects the door panel from rain water that may enter through the window.  You should try to leave this plastic cover as intact as possible, although it is difficult to remove without damaging it.

     Once you have access to the inside of the door, roll up the window and feel up into the door to where the two nuts that hold the passenger mirror are located.  They should be in approximately the same locations as on the driver side.  Once you have located these nuts, you can take a transfer punch or a large nail and tap through the nuts from the inside to make an indentation in the outer door skin.  A light tap is usually all that is needed.   After you tap the door skin, take a center punch and tap on the outer door skin to make an appropriate indentation to properly guide your drill bit.  Now drill the two holes, starting with very small drill bits, and work your way up slowly to larger sizes.   Be careful not to damage the threads on the internal nuts when you use the larger drill bits.  You should be able to drill through the door skin without drilling out the threads on the nuts (the nuts on the inside of the door are not flush with the door skin).  Keep drilling larger holes until you can fit the mirror screws into the nuts.   The holes for the screws are shown in Figure 7.  Remember if you over drill the size of the hole, or make a silly mistake in the near vicinity, the entire area is covered up by the mirror base.  The mirrors use a special type of screw that fits the mirror perfectly.  When bolting on the mirror, make sure you use the appropriate gasket under the mirror base.  The passenger side mirror is shown installed in Figure 8.

     Now, reinstall the door panel onto the door following the reverse procedure for removal.  Make sure when you reattach the window crank, you put it on so that it's in an appropriate position when the window is up or down.  Well, that about does it.  If you have any questions about this job, drop us line...