80SC Targa Sun Visors Refurb (on the cheap)

[targa80]

I know this has been covered in several other threads and buying replacements are costly and having a professional refurbish the visors is just a little less expensive. With that said, I decided to see if I could refurbish the visors and hopefully improve on there internal design (strengthen the frame).

This is what my passenger visor looked like when I removed it from the car. There is an impression in the visor from a mounted garage door opener that will be there for ever.



Step 1. I used an Xacto knife to cut at the seam between the two mounting brackets. I also cut the seam near the mounting bracken on the thin side near where the rear view mirror is located. CAUTION: only cut on the one side so the frame can be removed from the vinyl skin. Do not extend the cut beyond the side seam on the thinner side and not beyond the mounting bracket on the wider side. The clips in the below picture is where the seam cuts were made.



As you can see in the picture below the original foam filler is disintegrated.



Step 2. I used 1/8 tempered hard board to trace out the pattern of the wire frame.




Step 3. I cut out the pattern using a jig saw and JB welded the pieces into the wire frame.



Step 4. Using 1/2" foam padding and the vinyl cover to trace out both sides of the foam padding.



Step 5. Cut out the opening for where the mirror is located and use 3m trim adhesive to glue both sides to the wire/hard board frame.



Step 6. Note: Once the foam is glued together on the frame I used a scissor to cut a curve on each side of the foam padding so the edges were in a curved "U" shape.

Step 7. The mirror is just 1/8" plastic with a stick on mirror sheet of paper. It can be slid out of its frame from the inside of the vinyl cover. I used the old mirror to make a template on a 1/8" glass mirror.



Step 8. Used a Glass cutter and nibbler pliers to cut the mirror to size and reinstalled into mirror frame.

[Steve F]

Well done!!

[Mocker]

So how did you close the vinyl back up?

[targa80]

Step 9. install the new frame into the old vinyl cover. It should be noted that I first tried using glue from a vinyl repair kit to seal the inside edge of the open seam and it was a poor choice. The glue provided no real adhesion or strength to the seam. I cleaned off all of the vinyl glue from the inside edge and opted for a thin line of gorilla glue (crazy glue)on the inside edge and closed the seam with clips.



Step 10. Using an Xacto knife to trim off any ruff edging on the seam and to recreate a gentle curve from mounting bracket to mounting bracket.



Step 11. Used vinyl cleaner and mother Back to Black trim and plastic restorer.




The finished product is about as good as I can expect for DIYer. The mirror has been replaced with glass so I do not expect to see any scratches in it in the future. The foam and 4" round mirror was purchased at a local craft shop. The 1/8" tempered hard board came from the local home depot. The overall cost was between $25 ~ $30 for materials and I have plenty of material left to do the drivers side. As noted in the beginning of the post you can still see in the last picture that the impression from the remote control is still there and will probably be there forever..

[targa80]

Originally Posted by Mocker

So how did you close the vinyl back up?

I had to make a second posting because of the picture limit on one post.

[Jgordon]

You might have luck tightening up the vinyl with a very careful application of a heat gun.

Great work.

[RDM]

Very cool. My solution was to store the sun visors in the garage and put baseball caps in the door pockets.

[7783911]

the small solver Philips screw heads have been mentioned in other posts are tensioners...yet I dont have on my visors..where they standard on all years and mine if after market? (i am looking for a way to stop the occasional droop of the visors during "spirited driving"

[targa80]

Originally Posted by 7783911

the small solver Philips screw heads have been mentioned in other posts are tensioners...yet I dont have on my visors..where they standard on all years and mine if after market? (i am looking for a way to stop the occasional droop of the visors during "spirited driving"

I don't know the answer to that question. Hopefully someone else will know the answer.