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Subject:Does a broken mirror bring bad luck?
From:Graham Fitter
Date:Sun, 13 Jan 2002 12:36:28 -0500

Hi all,

So I was driving along a while back and the mirror on the driver's door
went all floppy. Indeed, it was so floppy I had to keep the window open
and held the mirror in place until the next exit on the interstate. Then
I removed the mirror, tightened up the nut to increase the friction and
put the mirror back on the door. The mirror flopped.

Fine, I thought, and tightened up the nut even more, then the whole
thing came apart in my hands. It turns out that the bolt holding the
ball joint together isn't really a bolt, but a hexagonal stud hammered
into a hexagonal hole in the mirror mount, and held in place by
friction. If the nut is tightened too much to overcome a really floppy
mirror, the bolt is just pulled out of its hole and the whole thing
falls apart.

Not having a mirror is a really bad thing on a Massachusetts highway, so
as a last resort, I took the mirror off the passenger's door and put it
on the driver's door. The mirror is obviously a different orientation,
and doesn't fold flat against the door, but does the job just fine.

In fact, I think its better this way round - the overall backwards
visibility on the highway is much better than before - and I'm not going
to switch the mirrors over when I fix the broken one :-)

Cheers,
Graham

p.s. Has anyone had any success securing the hexagonal shaped stud in
the hexagonal shaped hole? Would glue work?

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