Stick on glass is the easiest fix in motoring. Start to finish in a quarter of an hour with no tools, just a clean cloth and a steady hand.
Stick on wing mirror glass is the fastest fix in motoring. Once you have the right glass in your hand, you can have the old one off and the new one on in well under a quarter of an hour. Here is the start to finish job, with the gotchas that trip people up on the first attempt.
Tools and parts
You need almost nothing.
- The replacement stick on glass, correct side, heated or non heated to match your car
- A cloth and a small amount of isopropyl alcohol or surgical spirit
- A pair of nitrile gloves if you do not want fingerprints on the new mirror
- A roll of masking tape, optional, to mark fitting position before you commit
The adhesive pads on the new glass are designed for clean, dry, room temperature surfaces. Fitting onto a damp or oily mirror is the number one reason a stick on glass falls off two weeks later. Five minutes with a cloth saves you a second order.
Step one, clean the old glass
The old glass stays in place. You are fitting on top of it. Spray a little isopropyl alcohol or surgical spirit onto the cloth and wipe the broken or scratched original glass thoroughly. Get into the corners. Let it air dry for two minutes. Anything still tacky after a wipe means there is hand cream, polish, or road grime that needs another pass.
Step two, dry fit before you commit
Hold the new glass over the old one without peeling the adhesive film yet. Find the spot where the edges line up. Most vans and cars have a slight asymmetry in the housing, with one corner sitting closer to the plastic surround than the others. Use that corner as your locating point. If you have masking tape, run a thin strip along the bottom edge of the new glass before you peel, so you can rest it on the strip and tip it into place rather than guessing the alignment in mid air.
Step three, peel and press
Peel the blue or red protective film off the back of the new glass. Try not to touch the adhesive pads with your fingers. Line the glass up against your masking tape reference. Press the centre first, then work outwards with steady pressure across the whole surface for about thirty seconds. The adhesive cures under pressure, not heat. Heavy fingers on the centre and you are done.
Step four, do not adjust for an hour
The adhesive reaches full bond strength after about sixty minutes at room temperature. If you adjust the mirror with the motor or by hand inside that window, you risk shearing the bond before it has set. Park up, do something else, then check alignment from the driver seat after an hour.
What to do if you fit the wrong side
You will know immediately. The convex curve on a left passenger glass is mirrored compared to the right driver. If you have peeled and stuck the wrong one, do not try to lift it off. Order the correct side, leave the wrong one in place as a base layer, and fit the new correct one on top once it arrives. The adhesive holds fine for double stacking.
