Quote:
Originally Posted by slikside
FirstOwner,
I have the same mirrors/nuts as yours there, only mine are painted.
But I can assure you that the standard 3/8" coarse thread, "high crown acorn" nuts that I ordered from Totally Stainless would in NO WAY thread onto my support arms. Yes, it blew me away too. I had to spend money to ship them back because I had absolutely no use for them if they wouldn't fit.
So I went to a local nut/bolt supplier that I hadn't known about before this.
The nut that did thread onto my support arms was definitely metric (#10 coarse IIRC). I did not buy them then because it was a regular acorn vs. High acorn, although it was stainless. Plus, they're a wholesaler, and if I wanted one or four, I would have to buy 25 of them!! 
I still have my original acorns, but I really want to upgrade all the h/w on my mirrors to stainless. |
That's very unusual. I've disassembled and reassembled a bunch of these. All had the same size studs on the elbows and took a 9/16" wrench for removal and 3/8" nuts. Did your elbows have studs or could someone have snapped the original studs off (common) and drilled and tapped them for metric threaded rod inserts?
If you are going stainless, you may want to consider some elbows from later 70s vans or trucks since the original elbows are chrome plated and most are rusty. The later trucks and vans as well as some from Dodge and Ford used stainless elbows. Some of those also have one leg of the elbow shorter than the originals which would effectively tuck the mirror head in closer to the door. However, the later elbows are drilled and tapped so you'd have to make inserts out of stainless bolts to use acorn/bullet nuts.