The rear overhead cabinet or AC unit in the Westfalia reduces your rear view (huh? you know what I mean) and that bugs a lot of folk, including me. There was a Samba thread on this subject with some good solutions. One was to use a baywindow van mirror stalk, there were some that had extended stalks and this is the hot ticket. I have a ’72 westy gathering moss with regular sized stalk, so I removed the rear view mirror – clockwise twist on stalk – and tried it our with the Vanagon mirror (why on earth had I not bothered to do this before you ask? I guess I’m slow).
The ball joint between the mirror and the stalk are the same on both, and the mirror comes off with a little bit of twisting.
The baywindow stalk is perhaps a tad longer than the vanagon’s, but the attachment angle is different. The upshot is it may provide a bit better rear view. Pictures to prove this assertion to come, but for now some pics of the stalks. The baywindow stalk in off white, the Vanagon in brown.
Update: took pictures of both stalks (same mirror) in van. The shots from drivers point of view, showing rear visibility are crap, sorry. Don’t know if you can tell that there is improved viewing angle, but I think there is. The side views show clearly the different angles of the stalks. If you have a spare baywindow stalk lying around its worth trying it out.
shooftie 