Early 463 mirrors vs. later 463s (non-blinker ver.)

Having lost a mirror to a white van's sturdy plastic version, I faced the task of replacing the mirror after glue proved only a temporary solution (the metal stalk allows for rotation had broken).
After finally finding one on ebay in near-new condition, and it arriving, I was surprised to find they had changed the size of holes (increase) from my 1991 model (see photo).

So I had to reluctantly get some abrasive bits and enlarge the holes in my door to fit the new one. Surprise surprise when some loose bits inside the mirror turn out to be the plastic supports that hold the mirror glass to the base. I took it off to inspect, and the rest came crumbling into my hands. The plastic on the back was VERY brittle, which made me suspect either it had been thru extreme temperatures, or was just part of a bad batch, which explains why it was on ebay in the first place.

So now the moral of the story, I removed the 16-yr old glass from my old mirror, which was thankfully still intact, and fitted it onto the new housing, and it came off brilliantly, without a single mount breaking.

So whatever you fix on the G, DO NOT throw the old parts away. You never know when they might come in useful.

It really does seem the case that the newer parts are mostly lower quality. Only the week before I suffered a failure on a couple of my ignition leads (bosch, bought new a year ago, separate issue) and destroyed them while trying to remove them from the distributor. Fortunately I kept the old ones when replacing them, and simply popped them back on while another replacement arrives. Fortunately merc do the plug boot separately from the lead, and only the plug/boot had rusted so I got new plugs from the dealer (£10+vat) and fittem them in no time, with the older, better quality leads (both bosch by name, but very different in quality and age).

So on the plus side I do have 1 extra aspherical mirror glass with no clamps on the back, I think it will take pride of place in the office somewhere, an €80 piece of glass!

Incidentally the back of the glass has 3 numbers on it, for those part number collectors amongst you:
A463 810 1616 asphaerisch

463 810 0516 plan (€80~)
463 810 0616 konvex (€108)