Recently I found myself with a half day spare, and a set of heated mirror elements for the Defender. So I thought I’d make the most of both of these and fit them. Of course it turned into a much bigger job than I expected and ran into another day. The outcome of this over running is that I neglected to take photos of my work. So this post will only have 4 photos……. pretty poor, even I’m disappointed.

I opted for the Mud Stuff heater mirror elements and kit, as couldn’t be bothered to source parts. Nice kit, comes with some twin core cable that’s pre-contained so looks presentable when exposed.

The first part was to disassemble the mirror and make it suitable to run cables through, this part of the fitting is detailed in the instruction supplied with the heating elements, also on the Mud Stuff website and from www.xtremelandy.co.uk, which they borrowed it from. The most challenging part was removing the rubber ring from the mirror, it was very tight. Once off the glass can be removed and cleaned so the heating element can be stuck on.

Next was to modify the mirror arm to allow the cable to pass through it, first hole was downwards / upwards through the mirror ball.

Then sideways into the mirror from the arm into the main vertical section. This gave the cable a route from the back of the glass through the mirror arm to the hinge. So next the newly installed hinges needs to be cut back to allow the cable to pass through into the door. This was not pleasant to do considering how much I just spent on the hinges. But I got on with it. The first side I used only a die grinder attachment, which works OK, but took a long time. Second time I drilled it twice.

The used the die grinder to remove the rest which was a much better result.

Then it was simply a case of drilling the door and putting the cable inside the cab, then refitting everything.

Almost couldn’t tell! I decided that I would put connectors on the cable so that if need to take the door off (which I will), it will be easier. From here it was a case of connection to power, earth and the switch. The blank spaces on the Raptor dash are filling up (I will get a picture of this!). What I will add is the Mud Stuff instruction end and getting the cable through the door and putting it into the A pillar. However I found it impossible to go anywhere from this point unless I went down under the body, so I remove the cable back to the internal side of the upper hinge a bridged the gap from here to the back of the dash. I must admit it doesn't look OEM, but I think it better than going under the bulkhead, across the outrigger, up the outside of the bulkhead and into the dash from here. Personal choice I guess.

That’s all, hopefully next job will be the headlining or lighting……..