Door and wing mirrors are the principal exterior mirror types for everyday use on classic MGs, the range covering door-mounted, wing-mounted, and component mirrors in the patterns and finishes needed to give any classic MG the original style it deserves. The door-mounted mirror bolts to the door skin near the front upper corner, with the driver's view encompassing the lane behind the car and the area alongside at door level, while the wing-mounted mirror fits to the front wing close to the windscreen pillar, providing slightly different visibility characteristics that some drivers find more useful for everyday traffic. Mirror specifications changed several times through production across the range, and understanding the production history matters when ordering, as no MGB left the factory with a driver's door mirror as standard on UK home market cars until 1973, with two door mirrors becoming standard on North American cars from the 1972 model year, and the first home-market MGB to have two mirrors as standard being the V8.
Door-Mounted Mirrors
Door-mounted mirrors are the more popular position on later applications, the mirror sitting close to the cabin with the bracket bolting through the door skin with appropriate sealing washers to prevent water ingress into the door cavity, the mirror itself swivelling on a ball-joint mounting at the end of the bracket to allow adjustment for the driver's preferred position. Door mirrors are stocked in handed left-hand and right-hand pairs in chrome to complement chrome-bumper cars, in stainless steel for substantially better long-term durability with no risk of the chrome plating failing over years of service, and in matt black for rubber-bumper cars and for owners preferring an understated appearance or matching darker-coloured cars. The factory-fitted mirrors were originally chrome-plated, changing to stainless steel in March 1976 on MGB production. The torpedo-style door mirror is an aerodynamic alternative that mounts onto the standard plinth and is interchangeable with the standard mirror, reducing wind noise at speed, while a sports racing mirror in either door or wing-mounting form provides a more purposeful look.
A plinth kit is required when fitting a door mirror to any car where the door skin has not previously been drilled, providing the correct angled mounting base on the door skin and presenting cleanly against the door panel, with the plinth essential on pre-1973 cars where no door mirror was originally fitted.
Wing-Mounted Mirrors
Wing-mounted mirrors are the alternative position with the mirror mounted on the front wing close to the windscreen pillar, the visibility characteristics slightly different from the door-mounted position as the mirror is further forward in the driver's peripheral vision, which some drivers find less distracting on long journeys and better suited to cars frequently driven with the hood up. Wing mirror assemblies cover a range of period and modern styles with mirror head shapes including round as the most period-traditional, oval for a wider horizontal field of view, and larger square or round heads for more rearward coverage, each assembly supplied as a complete unit with the head, stem, and mounting base. Wing mirrors were quoted as BMC-approved accessories from the start of MGB production in 1962, the Desmo Boomerang Continental with trapezoidal head being the preferred period type, alongside round-head alternatives from Desmo and Magnatex.
Components, Glass & Finish Options
For owners wanting to build a custom mirror to match their car's specification, separate mirror heads and stems are stocked, heads in various sizes and shapes with stems in different heights and angles and a plinth kit covering the mounting base, the component approach allowing combination of a specific head shape and glass type with a specific stem height to achieve a unique visual that matches the car's overall specification. Replacement mirror heads are available separately where the original stem is sound but the glass is broken, scratched, or de-silvered, in flat glass which gives a true-to-life image for accurate distance judgement and in convex glass which gives a wider field of view at the cost of mild image distortion. The choice of finish depends on the owner's preference for period-correct appearance versus long-term durability, both chrome and stainless being appropriate for classic-MG application, with chrome being the period-correct finish for chrome-bumper cars and stainless offering better service life through UK winters with no risk of plating failure or pitting under salt exposure.