Removing glass from rear view mirror

So, tonight i decided to give exactly what the title states and open my rear view, i have a real slick idea to tie my entire project together and im not quite ready to reveal it just yet until i know ill be able to pull it off but, in short i ended trying and almoooost got it loose with a plastic pry tool and some pop sickle sticks but still wound up cracking the glass and im going to pick up a few different mirrors at the junk yard tomorrow along with some other things to practice.

If anybody has any insight or ideas or preferably experience in doing this could shed a little detailed light on a way to go about doing it.

just my two cents...

if its a simple rear view mirror then i would guess the glass is glued into the plastic...

if it has stuff like auto dimming n what not i would be willing to bet there is a seam some place where it all clips together...

check some car audio forums or even a local audio shop because rattley mirrors are right up there with license plates and heat shields on the "rattley list" and they may have some insight for disassembly...

i have no hands-on though sorry

Heat gun or oven. An oven is more regulated though. Here are some ideas how it's done with tail lights. Same type of glue, but probably a little harder plastic/ABS on the mirror.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&r...n+oven&spell=1

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sleepyz0mby

just my two cents...

if its a simple rear view mirror then i would guess the glass is glued into the plastic...
if it has stuff like auto dimming n what not i would be willing to bet there is a seam some place where it all clips together...


check some car audio forums or even a local audio shop because rattley mirrors are right up there with license plates and heat shields on the "rattley list" and they may have some insight for disassembly...

i have no hands-on though sorry

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With some exploration today i picked up 5 different mirrors from the junk yard and you are correct it seems that most that have electronics inside do have a seam, i was able to open one by just gently prying against the clips around the edge, but on the basic mirrors i haven't figured out a way as of yet to pry evenly around the edges enough to remove the glass with out cracking or chipping it, they dont look to be glued from the back just either molded in at production or very well pressure fit.

As for your reply Curiosity i have heard of using the oven for lighting i would assume it would be relatively the same, ill give a try with the heat gun later on with a basic molded mirror and see what the results are and put up a few pictures of what i find.

Anyway, my reasoning for wanting to access the inside of the mirror is in the same catagory as the members who mount their radar displays behind the glass, but as for me i like to appreciate the more subtle details and to tie my whole iBlazer mac mini project together i want to have a vinyl decal made of apples think different slogan along with the apple and just remove the silver in those places and backlight them when i take my truck to shows or when i just want to show it off.

Heres a quick picture example of what im trying to do.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...MirrorIdea.jpg

What do you guys think?