Sorting out the glass situation for the Ganadors has been a long journey. I first went to a semi-local glass shop to attempt the task of making blue tinted and convex mirrors for me. These guys were the only ones in the area willing to give it a shot, due to their experience making custom windows for chopped hot rods. The process went like this. I found a few OEM replacement lenses for various vehicles to trace a cut on. I first ordered a set of Cadillac CTS lenses, but their dimensions ended up being too small to sufficiently encompass the mirror size of the Ganadors. I then found a set of BMW X5 lenses which had the adequate surface area, but came with the downside of only being available in backing plate form. In other words, the glass came pre-glued onto plastic backing plates and would require the extra step of careful separation prior to cutting.
Long story short, I had to re-buy the X5 lenses a total of 4 times. The glass was extremely difficult to detach and repeatedly broke. Eventually, after a couple months of slow trials, both the left and right side lenses were traced and successfully cut. When I went to pick the up, I decided I didn’t like the results of hand cut glass. They would have worked, but the edges were rougher and not completely uniform. And just like that, I paid the shop for their efforts and immediately abandoned the finished product. Instead, I made a pivot that led me down the production and design route of my very own CNC cut lenses.
In the end, it was a successful outcome because not only did I obtain lenses that fit my requirements, I was also yielded a business endeavor from it. As it turns out, I’m not the only one looking for blue tinted and convex Ganador lenses.
After cleaning up the Ganador backing plates, I used clear silicone to glue on the new lenses. I used tape to hold everything in place overnight while the silicone cured.
Next, the lenses were popped back into the mirror bodies. Excuse the dirty fingerprint marks.
With the mirrors fully adjusted on either side, I am able to obtain a desirable viewing angle. I purposely left the mirrors adjusted slightly out of spec, however, because I didn’t like the gaps and the way they looked being completely cranked to one direction.