1937 Chevrolet Truck Right Mirror Arm Steel Like Original

The Right Mirror arm for 1936 through 1938 Chevy Pickup Truck is very rare. I have only seen one original on e-bay, and it had been chromed. The detail was lost on that one. They are next to impossible to find. I bought a reproduction when I was restoring my truck. I mounted it on the hinge and sat in the driver's seat. I then realized that the arm was curved forward so much that you could hardly see the mirror. In attempting to straighten the built in curve, it snapped off. I was actually relieved that happened. It made me nervous to mount my original 1937 Chevy Pickup Truck mirror on that cheesy pot metal arm. I knew that a slight bump against it could end up with my prized mirror head on the ground in pieces.

I knew at that point that my original 37 Chevy mirror would be mounted on a steel arm, like the original, and not some brittle pot metal reproduction.

I started with a piece of re-bar and some flat stock. I chose the re-bar because by grinding off the cross hashes, I ended up with a piece that looked like it had cast lines up and down both sides, just as the original has. I shaped and welded the flat stock together to fit over the hinge, like the original and welded the rebar piece that I had carved on, to the formed piece that I'd made from the flat stock. I ground the top of the formed piece so that it looked like the cast line extended onto that piece just like the original, and made a round piece for the mirror head to bolt to and welded that on.

Now it was time after grinding, filing and sanding the piece to do the finish on it.
I surfaced it with primer surfacer and sanded it. I then primered it again using very low pressure so that the primer went on with a texture that made it look like a cast piece, just like the original. After that was dry, I took a little angle grinder with 50 grit and brushed it across my casting lines, just as the original was. After that, it was sealer and topcoat.

The only way to detect that it is not an original by looking at it, is that it doesn't have the casting number 592146. On the dark pictures, notice the textured look in the finish and the grinder marks on my casting lines that I created.