Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:30:44 -0600
Reply-To: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Adapting visor clips to use late model visors in early vanagons
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And please excuse the casual reference to "early vanagons." The problem may
be limited to early Westies, but since I do not have an early non-westy
around to check, I"ll have to let you do that.
The main problem is that by now, the early-80s era sunvisors (which weren't
all that great to begin with) have become sagging bags of foam dust. I have
tried everything I could think of to rebuild them. It's a lot of work with
mixed success.
Online parts vendors stock them, but they tend to be for one side or the
other, not a set, don't have a mirror where they should, and are hideously
expensive.
The world is full of very nice, late model padded visors in great shape. So
why can't we use them?
The problem is easily noticed if you install them. The very end (near the
mirror) of the visor beyond the point where it snaps into the the visor
clip has just a little too much meat on it. Everything else lines up,
screws all fit, no mods needed, everything is nice--until you operate the
visor. When you do, you rotate the visor through almost 180 degrees,
thereby smashing that "meaty" part against the hardboard ceiling, and
levering off the top part of your clip in the process.
If you are handy with a hobby saw, and sandpaper, and have access to a set
of four clips that can be combined into two, you can have a very nice set
of late-model visors in your early vanagon. Did I mention that you could
have a lighted mirror on the passenger side?
I have pictures to send to those interested, but basically you take a clip
and an x-acto hobby saw and you saw the top (the part with the clip, sure,
you can used a broken clip for this) so you have a base with a flat top and
no clip. You take another one and saw off the clip as low as you can. You
glue the two together into a unit that looks like the original only about
1/4 inch taller. You sand the sides so that no excess glue show, and
install as usual.
Some may comment that it would be easier just to make a base out of some
plastic material that raises the unit, but if you get into it you will see
that there is a molded plastic tang on the bottom that fits into a square
locator hole where the clip goes. Unless you are prepared to recreate and
attach this tiny tang, you are better off with the procedure described
above.
It just works great. Time will tell if the epoxy has trouble sticking to
the plastic of the clip. I will report in due time.
Jim
