Side mirror repairs

1997 Dodge 1500. Driver side mirror flops. On older vehicles you could tighten the nut. There's a big black cover over the area where the nut would be. It's glued to the wind guards too. How do I take that black panel off without breaking it and the wind guard?

Whaaa???

It unbolts behind the panel on the other side...

I took the screw out on the inside of the door but it still wouldn't budge. Are there clips on the back of the pannel?

My driver's side mirror does this too, and it's the same truck, '97 1500. I don't know how to fix it either. Any kind of wind that comes up will make the mirror point inwards, and eventually push it against the glass. It's annoying!

We're in the same spot. I'm looking at myself in the driver side mirror instead of traffic in the other lane. Annoying and Dangerous!

most of the time, I've just replace the mirror when it's done this. I'm not sure it comes apart!

I had the same problem with my 96 drivers side. To remove the mirror, you need to remove the door panel. Take the screws out of the cup like handle and the one that is by the upper right corner. The panel is in place by clips. Gently pull away from door. After panel is removed (have a box handy to set the panel on so that the door lock and window wires don't get pulled) there's a section of foam in the hole where the nuts are to remove the mirror. After you remove the mirror you will see the screws you have to tighten to repair the mirror. You might even have to shim it with some cardboard to get it snug. You will need a star shaped driver (Tork?)to tighten them.

This seemed to be a temporary fix for me, I replaced them with aftermarkets some time after.

Thank You! I stopped by the Dealer on Saturday but Service Dept was closed. They took a look and said "That requires a service call, it's much more complicated than you think."

Now I know he was serious.

These panels are hard to get back on. I took my passenger door panel off to see how hard it would be to remove and replace the speakers in there, and now I can't get the panel back on properly. Simple screws would have made a lot more sense I think...

once the mirror wears down the adjustment ball, it's never fixed permanently by tightening.

Besides knocking the mirrors off some of my trucks (not on purpose or drunk, mind you..) the floppy mirrors plagued me for two years on 4 trucks. I finally replaced all of them(the mirrors...). Now since then, I believed my guys when they said tightening the screws made it worse faster!

I was thinking about just making a support bracket that goes in between the door and the mirror, about 6 or 7 inches long, so the mirror can't move towards the glass. I'll have to manufacture something. It only bothers me on windy days...