marge602
23-04-2007, 08:37 PM
Hi folks. Me and my sister have just got to the bottom of a mystery. Sometime last year, not long after our Beat had arrived, a large burn mark appeared in the drivers seat. Since my sister smokes, i figured she'd been careless and burnt the seat, which she went to great lengths to deny. I had to admit it would be hard to burn the seat you were sat on and figured maybe it was something i'd missed when i bought it.
So, my sis has been driving it to work for the last week or so, while her Civic had work done for the MOT. I was away last week and got in our micro machine to find another burn mark. Again, my sis denied burning the seat, saying she only smokes in the Civic cos it's her own car. Then it occured to us.
Our car has a non-standard nearside mirror glass, which has been ground down from something unlikely to be car derived, and has a massive magnification effect, enough to make it hard to see out of. Since both burns are in exactly the same plane, but in different places on the seat, it transpires the heat from the sun reflects off the mirror and concentrates on the seat when the car is parked in the right(or wrong) place, and causes it to actually burn into it! We could have been a few degrees C from a full-on blaze with insurance claim. I've included a pic which shows the first repaired mark and the new one, which has even melted the vinyl on the side. Anyone know where i can get a standard mirror glass?
Yours absolutely amazed
Marge
So, my sis has been driving it to work for the last week or so, while her Civic had work done for the MOT. I was away last week and got in our micro machine to find another burn mark. Again, my sis denied burning the seat, saying she only smokes in the Civic cos it's her own car. Then it occured to us.
Our car has a non-standard nearside mirror glass, which has been ground down from something unlikely to be car derived, and has a massive magnification effect, enough to make it hard to see out of. Since both burns are in exactly the same plane, but in different places on the seat, it transpires the heat from the sun reflects off the mirror and concentrates on the seat when the car is parked in the right(or wrong) place, and causes it to actually burn into it! We could have been a few degrees C from a full-on blaze with insurance claim. I've included a pic which shows the first repaired mark and the new one, which has even melted the vinyl on the side. Anyone know where i can get a standard mirror glass?
Yours absolutely amazed
Marge