Always being a fan of fender mounted mirrors on proper Japanese spec vehicles, I knew that I wanted something special on the front of my Datsun 620 build. Being uninspired but was already available in the aftermarket, I decided to take on my own design and approach them as full carbon bodied parts.

Starting with a few different design iterations in SolidWorks, I refined the final model to meet all the criteria I was looking for. Starting with a mirror element and stem assembly from another cheaper pair of mirrors, the new design continued forward while still using the adjustability of the original. I also decided to embed a set of amber LED indicators into the leading edge of the mirror stems, to give it a more modern and unique character while still keeping the overall vintage look.

The mirrors were 3D printed as an alternate version with drafted ends to use as bucks, body worked and polished to be used in the mold production. The geometry of the mirror required the pieces to be built as two split halves, so split molds were hand laminated and pulled from the mirror plugs.

Once the molds were finished and prepped, the mirror halves were resin infused using carbon twill and infusion epoxy to produce beautiful pieces out of the mold. With some careful trimming of the excess flange material and hand aligning of two body halves, I designed and 3D printed part specific clamping fixtures to precisely hold the body together as I lap-laminated the bodies together with additional carbon fabric. A hand lathe-turned adjuster stem boss with locking hole profiles was made to be embedded in epoxy inside the mirror body to hold the mirror system, along with threaded studs and an end cap at the base of the mirror to mount into the fenders.

The mirrors were located and fixtured in my home CNC and the indicator LED recesses milled into the carbon and epoxy stems to house the LED lights. Some final hand turned aluminum trim rings at the ends of the mirrors also act as a bearing pivot for the mirror elements to swivel and adjust around. A little clear coat and some polishing later, and these beautiful little mirrors were ready to go on the truck.