Fresh off a trip full of hiking and camping in Big Bend, I got back home and immediately noticed something wasn’t right with the 4Runner. The rearview mirror had fallen off the windshield. Not loosened. Not sagging. Just… off.

What made it more surprising is that this windshield wasn’t old — it was replaced fairly recently. So seeing the mirror fail like that was not exactly confidence-inspiring. I unplugged the wiring that was barely holding it in place and started figuring out my next move.

Step one was cleanup. All the old adhesive had to go — both on the windshield and the metal mounting puck. The glass side was easy enough. The metal mount, however, needed some persuasion in the form of a Dremel and sandpaper before it was clean enough to reuse.

Once everything was prepped, I took inventory of my options. I almost went with some two-part epoxy I already had, but I wasn’t sure how UV-stable it was, and the last thing I wanted was to redo this in six months. Since I was already heading to O’Reilly’s for my wife’s oil change, I grabbed a tube of JB Weld MirrorWeld. There were cheaper options on the shelf, but I’ll admit it — the word “weld” got me. It just sounds permanent.

Using a blue paint marker and a level, I marked the mirror location on the windshield and followed the instructions to bond the metal mount back to the glass. Full cure time was listed as 24 hours, which conveniently gave me time to deal with the next issue.

While removing the mirror assembly, the plastic housing for the GPS/compass module completely disintegrated. Like, fell apart in my hands disintegrated. There was no saving it. I tried making a replacement back plate out of some spare ABS plastic I had lying around, but every attempt looked bad enough that I abandoned the idea altogether.

So I made an executive decision: I deleted it.

It’s 2025. I don’t really need cardinal directions displayed on my mirror, and I usually keep the temperature showing anyway — which matters way more to me. The module went straight into the trash. As a bonus, removing it actually improved my field of view. No extra plastic hanging down below the mirror, so not a total loss.

The next day, once the adhesive had fully cured, I reinstalled the mirror and everything seems solid. Time will tell, but I’m hoping this mirror weld holds up a lot longer than whatever Safelite used the first time.

So far, so good.