I’ve gotten a lot from this site in the short time I’ve owned my S2000, and thought I should give back a little bit. Coincidentally, I'm doing the same GHSHL4 Gentex mirror install that is being posted about in another thread. It's a great mirror that you can get off Ebay. Mine came from a 2011 Subaru. A problem that I ran into that I couldn’t find a good solution to is how to mount a non-S2000 mirror to the windshield without having to remove the button.

I don’t want to remove the button for two reasons. First, I’m afraid that it will result in a broken windshield. Second, I am trying to make everything I do to the car be easily reversible so it can be taken back to stock if someone wants to do that in the future. I know there is a 3D printed mount that can be used to modify Gentex mirrors to hold an S2000 stalk, but I don’t have a 3D printer and the Gentex mirror I picked does not open up non-destructively. I thought I found a conversion kit on Bob’s Automotive Mirror’s web site and I purchased it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work with the S2000. I cannibalized the conversion kit to use the Gentex compatible button and went to work trying to build something that would convert from the S2000 mount to the standard mount.

If you don’t have the adapter kit and button you can buy a button on Amazon. It won’t have mounting holes, but in some ways this is an advantage and you will only have to drill one in the button (read all the way through to see why).

The S2000 windshield button is basically an inverted U shape the mirror slides into with a lip that the mount clamps to:




After some false starts I came up with a fairly straightforward way to allow the Gentex mount to be attached to the S2000 windshield button. I found an old washer that’s about 1 1/8 inches (28.5mm) that fits into the U of the button:




I started with a 6-32 tapered head bolt that I had lying around as well (an M4 would work too). I had to use a tapered head and even then the washer had to be drilled out a little to let the bolt sit flat enough that it and the washer would slide into the S2000 mount. The washer I used was 1.2 mm thick and two of them are a pretty snug fit in the button, so you have very little depth available for a screw head. Despite the pictured bolt being too long, I think a shorter tapered bolt would have worked fine, but I was a little concerned about the force I was putting on a small surface area around the hole so I switched to an 8-32 T-nut.




Then I cut out a steel plate 45mm x 45mm. The S2000 button is only about 35 mm tall, but you need the extra height because the Gentex compatible button will extend beyond the S2000 button when you make allowances for the mounting screw, and I wanted it supported. (Pro tip: paint the plate after you have the mount completely fabricated and the mirror mounted to the windshield in the position you want. Ask me how I figured that out). I drilled three holes. Two for the Gentex button to mount to and one for the washer assembly to get bolted down. Here’s the plate with the Gentex button mounted and the Washer with T-bolt.




I put the button above the mounting hole, because with it below the mirror was too low for my liking. When this picture was taken I had two bolts holding the Gentex button to the plate. It turns out that the lower bolt interfered with the S2000 button, so I switched to a single bolt in the upper hole and used JB Weld to help hold the button to the plate. This led to a problem with the mirror, which needs the lower hole filled so that the set screw that keeps it firmly held to the button has something to engage with. I solved that by using JB weld to hold a small screw head in that hole. This is where a button with only one hole would have an advantage.

The T-bolt protruded past the top of the plate so I used a couple of small washers and a lock washer on the shaft when it was installed. Trying to install it unearthed a problem. When tightening down the screw the T-nut rotated and wouldn’t allow me to create enough tension. I partially solved that by using JB weld to attach it to the washer. However, this led to a new problem where the washer rotated when trying to tighten the screw and I couldn't get enough grab on the washer to keep it from rotating. I cut a slot in the washer so I could use a flat head screwdriver to hold it in place while I tightened.




This finally let me attach the Gentex button and the mirror to the windshield.




You can’t see any of this behind the mirror, but at some point I will go and paint all the washers black (and repaint my steel plate). This is completely reversible. You take the Gentex mirror off, loosen the screw holding the plate to the S2000 mount, slide it off and the mount is ready for a stock S2000 mirror.

Hopefully this will help someone trying to do a mirror upgrade.

 

Where were you a few years ago before i cracked my windshield trying to remove the button on the replacement windshield, i just asked the shop to remove the button for me, should have done that to begin with