Developing: Exterior mirror blank / delete plate 3d printed

[Daox]

A lot of the Metro guys will quickly recognize this 'mod'. It is a blanking plate, or delete plate that allows you to remove your exterior mirror, and covers up any holes in the door. A lot of OEMs have used this to not only reduce the cost of a vehicle, but also increase the fuel economy of a car. Testing on Ecomodder shows this mod good for about a 2% increase in fuel economy per mirror removed. Not only that, but a nice side effect is reduced wind noise because the mirrors wreak havoc with aerodynamics.

What motivated me to do this mod was I recently was contacted by a Metro owner who wanted a mirror blanking plate. I made one for him on my 3d printer, and quickly wondered why I hadn't made one for the Mirage yet. So, I took the morning, removed my mirror (which is super easy), and started mocking things up. I started by cutting out a piece of cardboard to fit where the mirror used to cover. I then brought that inside and scanned it and put it into my CAD software to start the design. This is what I came up with.






Version 1 was printed out in super low quality draft mode just to get something to quickly see how it fit and make adjustments. Version 2 was printed out last night while I was out for the evening at church. I fit it up today and it looks pretty good to me. Here are a few pictures.







Here it is held up to the car. The mounting points need some adjustment, so had to hold it in place.





So, I am going to tweak the mounting points, and finalize what hardware I want to use. The current holes are too small because the holes in the door are fairly large and I need a bolt with a larger head.