Rear View Mirror Mount

thingiverse

This is a replacement mounting for a powered rear view mirror. There can't be very many mounting variations for car rear view mirrors. So, in theory, this mounting should fit a number of different vehicles. In this case, it has been designed for a Toyota RAV4 XA50 (2020 model) fifth generation SUV. More specifically, it is intended for use with a NikoMaku AS-3 Pro 12" rear view mirror with dash cam & rear view camera (link at end). Despite having a large rear window RAV4's (and several other cars that I've driven) have really poor view via the rear view mirror. My previous vehicle was a station wagon with exceptional all round rear view. Of course, SUVs make up for this with large wing mirrors and those people with more readies could invest in the top-of-the-range model with a factory fitted powered rear view mirror. In my case, the NikoMaku mirror not only solved the issue of poor rear view (due to a remote camera mounted in the trail but also came with a dashcam which I also desperately wanted. Like most powered rear view mirrors, the NikoMaku has the front facing lens built into one side of the mirror. Unfortunately the RAV4 has a large plastic cover on the front windscreen which houses various electronic components. This has the problem of obscuring a large portion of the front facing view. There are 2 possible solutions; move the mirror downward or move the mirror forward. After much experimentation, a combination of both solutions turned out to be the answer. The original RAV4 mirror is a dual ball jointed designed whereas the Nikomaku comes with its own fixed mounting bracket & arm. This comes in 2 parts meaning that the arm can be detached from the mounting. Although I designed a replacement mounting bracket for the arm to attach to, I didn't find that it suited my needs. So instead, I simply rotated the arm 180 deg on its original bracket. This resulted in the mirror mounting lower as opposed to rearwards. In fact, it places the mirror in exactly the same location in space that the original mirror comes from the factory. I've included the original mounting bracket design in case someone else might find it useful. The downside of rotating the arm downwards is that the swivel mount also faces downwards. Thankfully this is easily rectified by designing a bracket to convert down facing to rear facing. Note that the face with thicker pad is intended to mount to the mirror. The original M3 Philips screws supplied with the installation may be used as well as four more M3s cut to length. I printed the part using supports which are only necessary for the corners to the upright face. -- x -- I've also included a camera housing for the rear camera (plus fittings). It is intended that this will be attached to the upper plastic trim of the tailgate such that it faces outwards through the rear window. It has been designed to use 2xM3 screws (I had them leftover from another project). Again, this is intended for use with the remote rear camera supplied with the NikoMaku mirror. The camera mounting can be screwed directly into the trim or alternatively be attached via magnets. Using magnets is entirely optional and primarily intended for those people that don't wish to drill holes through the plastic trim (like me). To use the magnet system, fit magnets into the cavities provided and screw the Mounting and the Magnet Adaptor together. Then fit the Magnet Adaptor Base (fitted with magnets of course) onto the inside of the trim. I used Gaffers Tape to secure it in place. Lastly, clip the Camera Mounting in place I found that although the Camera Mounting does seat securely, it has a tendency to slide a bit so I added a couple of thin strips of double sided tape to prevent this. Make sure you test the magnet polarities to ensure they are correct before fitting. Magnets used were High Strength 19 x 1.5mm. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B081ZVH35J/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Addendum Mirror mount V2 has a few minor improvements. ~bevelled the upper edges in order to improve fit ~added slots in the leading face to aid seating ~widened the mounting channel as fit was too tight Addendum 25/03/21 Discovered issues with heat absorption inside the car cabin causing the Swivel Mount to continually deform. V4 is my latest attempt to stop this happening. Note: as PLA is extruded at 200+ deg C, logically the cabin temp must be in the order of 150-180 deg C for this to be a problem. ~ beefed up all surfaces ~ added recesses for nylon washers to isolate from mirror attachment (optional) ~ reduced size of circular hole so as to increase surface area and therefore strength ~ changed support arms to be integral part of bracket structure ~ added raised area on support arms to thicken them up