Anatomy of a sun visor

carl

carl

True Classic
Had to cut open an old sun visor to free up the mounting clips which were rusted on the frame. Thought some of you might want to know what they look like on the inside. A wire frame, board center and probably some foam which was only dust in mine.

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Nice! Someone posted a thread with restoration pics where they stripped them like yours & reassembled with new vinyl or leather. Can't recall who or what the thread title was though...
 
Looks like it shouldn't be too difficult to clean it up, make a new cardboard filler, and cover that with thin upholstery foam (I think it is called headliner foam?). The more difficult part might be recovering it, at least for those like myself that have NO upholstery skills. Any ideas for a simple way to do that?

I've seen them remade using textured ABS sheet, with no upholstery covering used. And as Huss said, a while back someone here managed to recover them with some type of vinyl/plastic and "melt" the seams around the edges (looked to be beyond my scope though). I'm sure there are those out there with the sewing skills to do it in upholstery fabric (again, not me). Naturally you could pay a shop to do it (that is if you're not like Carl and myself, not willing to pay for something like that :D). Ideas?
 
Nice of you to post this Carl. My vanity mirror was flopping around loose in the passenger visor. I somehow managed to get it back into the little clips inside the vinyl without breaking it or needing suturing using the braille technique. If you have a passenger side visor opened up it might be helpful for folks to see how those clips work.
 
They are nice. But with shipping that's about $80 USD, or half the value of my X. :D Though it would likely cost much more than that to have a shop recover them. I seem to recall others reporting costs in the hundreds of dollars to have them redone. So in that respect it isn't too bad I guess. And I suppose it would increase my X's value by 50%? The same source also offers other pre-made leather covers for X1/9 interior parts.

For my purposes I'd like to find something I could do myself at very little cost, considering I rarely drive the X and the visors aren't exactly it's highlight...and the car's (lack of) worth. :(

Regarding rebuilding the visors. I've never liked the fat "puffy" nature of them. Same thing on old VW's and other vehicles of the period. Typically they were like that even when new. So I'd redo them without all the padding. Unfortunately that would make the covers a different size from anything intended to replace the stock ones.
 
Why not just go total retro and get some smoke grey perspex, or blue, even colour code to your X, and cut it in the shape of the original visors and use nice little stainless plate with the ball end welded to it, then using the original mounts and voila, retro and new. Or even abandon any of the old and find some new mounts. Probably end up looking better than the original visors.

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Eugene has the right idea! I was thinking just a piece of thin board from Home Depot for that totally cheap ass look. The visor was getting trashed anyway as the mounting bracket shaft was rust-frozen onto the visor frame so the visor had to be cut open. We should all post pictures of parts that are being opened up just so we can see how the part is made. Visors are not really that necessary on an X but I wanted the car to be complete if and when I sell it next year. Strangely for me, as soon as I attach the spare tire cover the car is complete.
 
Eugine, that is exactly what I was referring to earlier using textured ABS without any cover. It is readily available in black or white, has something of a "wrinkle" finish on it, offers excellent UV resistance, is solid (not opaque) so it blocks the sun, easy to work with, and pretty cheap/easy to get. You can even heat it up with a heat-gun and shape it if you want some curve/bend to it. I've also seen it used for door cards; either uncovered similar to the "race style" aluminum ones, or as a replacement for cardboard when building new upholstered panels (waterproof and won't warp).


carl said:
We should all post pictures of parts that are being opened up just so we can see how the part is made.
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;) good idea.
 
It's pretty common stuff as far as I know. It can be found online. Locally there is a plastics supply place that has it in all thicknesses and sizes. I don't recall seeing it at the big box home supply stores, but they may have it? Below is one example from Amazon. You might find even better deals. I'm not sure if 12" is long enough without measuring one of the visors, but it is offered in all sorts of size configurations.

https://www.amazon.com/Install-Bay-...1543777029&sr=8-4&keywords=textured+abs+sheet
 
carl said:
Jeff, where do you get this textured ABS?
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Most any plastic supplier locally can provide variations. There may be a few different textures available. A plastics supplier will have large sheets, they often will have off fall that can be had quite cheaply. I would go and visit a few. Google plastic supplier for your city and you will find a few.
 
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