Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:23:43 -0500
Reply-To: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Refurbishing your own visors
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Sadly, the visors in my 83 deteriorated to the point that they were
more like cheap, sagging vinyl pillows filled with finely chopped
rope. The replacements for them are expensive (over $70 for the
passenger side, not too much better for the driver's) and incorrect
for the model... they are white on white and my originals are brown on
white.
When my bro in Austin landed an 82 with a bunch of spares, I swapped
him for a set of almost equally dilapidated visors to play with.
Today, during the monsoon, I stayed in the (home) office and tried my
hand at rebuilding the passenger side. It came out astonishingly well.
It is not for those without a certain amount of skill but not as hard
as you would think.
First, take a razorblade and slit the visor on the non-hinged edge all
the way around. This would be the part you could get to if the visor
were in the car, snapped into place. Don't cut the back part for a
variety of reasons you will figure out if you think about it long
enough.
Now empty out all the crumbs and clean out the inside of the visor.
Note that it is built on a heavy wire frame.
What you are going to do is make a sandwich to fit as nicely inside
the skin you've opened up with the razor as you can, and inside that
you will cut cardboard pieces that fit inside the frame.
Use foam from a craft store that is about 1/8 thick to cut two
identical pieces of foam (any thin, firm foam will probably do--you
could just as well use the same flooring underlayment that is used to
repair the leaking air ducts under the dash) just smaller than the
outline of the visor. Tracing the visor on the foam and cutting about
1/4 inch inside the line does a pretty good job. Slip one in as far as
it will go to check it, and when doing so, mark the outline of the
mirror from the back and cut that out. The other side doesn't need the
relief for the mirror, and you don't need to do it all all if you're
doing the driver's side.
The foam will be the outside of the sandwich, which will fit inside
(and be the closest thing to) the vinyl skin of the visor.
What is iused for the core pieces to fit inside the wire frame could
probably be any number of things including wood, but I opted for some
really thick cardboard about the same thickness of the diameter of the
wire frame. I peeled back the vinyl skin and traced the wire frame on
a piece of paper, inside the outline I had already traced of the whole
visor, and then cut these pieces out for a pattern to transfer to the
heavy cardboard. In other words, you want to fill all the spaces
between the wires and outside the wires--but within the vinyl
skin--with stiff material the same thickness as the diameter of the
wires so it feels smooth.
Then I used a spray adhesive to glue in one layer of the foam to the
vinyl. Then I laid in the cardboard sections after spraying each of
them. Then I glued in the top piece of foam.
The next and final part was actually one of the easiest. At a table
with plenty of light, a plastic bag down to catch drips and a tube of
adhesive trim from my FLAPS, I used the tube of adhesive to spread a
small amount of on each lip of the seam where I cut it. I used Scotch
tape in short strips to catch each side and pull it to just touch the
other, making a perfect and near invisible seam all around. To do
this, the pieces of tape must touch one another with no gaps. The
adhesive of the tape makes a wonderful release from the adhesive.I
don't know how long it took by the clock, but it occupied the final
twelve laps of the Shanghai Formula One Grand Prix.
And it hasn't looked this good since about 1985.
If anyone wants paper patterns, I can supply them in time.
Jim