1963 Interior Mirror Change

[Chuck W.]

Does anyone know approximately when or what VIN the change from the "Early" interior mirror to the "Later" interior mirror occurred?

[Jack H.]

Re: 1963 Interior Mirror Change

Noland Adams devotes a full section to '63 rear view mirrors (pp 70-71) citing there were actually four different mirror assys and 'loosely' based on his survey data when they appeared in production. Note: check your copy of the AIM as this might be a case of primary PN followed by [OPT] PN with one being a Guide product and the other being an outside supplier product.

If memory serves, Guide interior mirrors were NOT date coded in the glass while those from outside suppliers like Donnelly mirror, WERE date coded. Typically, JG descriptive text that recites how to decode the date codes ONLY describes the Donnelly sequence 'Y-DMI-Y' leading some judges to mistakenly expect an equivalent sequence to be present on Guide provided mirrors...

[Chuck W.]

Re: 1963 Interior Mirror Change

Thanks Jack. It appears that Noland's view was that all glass was date coded as Donnelly supplied the mirror glass. His examples are for what are considered "early" design mirrors. JG indicates these are not dated. Appears to be a conflict.

[Jack H.]

Re: 1963 Interior Mirror Change

We're reading the same text with different interpretations...

(1) Noland cites two PN's (one with optional construction) but he does NOT reveal the manufacturing source(s) qualified to provide those mirrors...

(2) He says, "Inside mirrors had a production date code etched on the glass...." but does NOT say 'ALL' production mirrors had dated glass.

(3) He gives an example of the Donnelly date coding sequence but cites no other examples...

Now, flip to your copy of the '63-64 Judging Guide. There, you'll see NCRS teaches:

(A) Guide WAS a supplier of mirrors, their glass was NOT dated.
(B) Donnelly was also a supplier of interior mirrors, their glass WAS dated.
(C) VACO was another mirror supplier and their date coding is undefined.

If you run the mirror PN's for Corvette against the applicable AIM books for other Chevy passenger cars & trucks, you'll find these PNs were NOT unique to Corvette. I've walked the scrap yards and pulled quite a few over the years. I can confirm there were multiple suppliers with slight differences in construction and 'some' had dated glass (Donnelly for one) while others had plain/undated glass...

[Chuck W.]

Re: 1963 Interior Mirror Change

OK, then going one step further Noland lists 4 VINs and the date codes on their glass. One could conclude that the earliest VIN 105385 had dated glass (6MDI2) and was therefore a Donnelly supplied part. Wouldn't it stand to reason then that after VIN 105384 a Donnelly supplied dated mirror could be correct?