Sunvisor Tip, and Question

The sunvisors in my SC Targa inflated! Actually they were like that when I bought the car. . . seems to be fairly common. . .noticed some other cars of similar age with the same ailment. Anyway, about 4 months ago I was complaining about how bad they looked and a friend said that he saw somewhere this cheap trick for repairing them. This entailed cutting small holes w/ a razor blade and inserting some of that "Home insulation in a can" stuff, squirting them full, and then laying a couple of books on thems to squish 'em flat. So, figuring I could do no harm, I tried it. It worked for about 3 months.
The car had been in the shop for something for about two weeks. When I got in it after picking it up I quickly noticed that my driverside sunvisor now came with a HUGE "Boil" or more like a bubble in the vinyl. I said "humph. . . thats wierd" and squeezed it. It felt like it was under pressure (like Air). . .So, I took a needle and Poped it. To my dismay, this golden GOOP started squirting out of the hole. . . to make things worse, it wouldn't stop! I had to drive home with a towel in my lap and my finger over the hole. After about an hour it quit leaking, but the bubble didn't go away. After that, I decided to quit messing around and just buy a new set. I bought a pair from Performance Products (aftermarket) for $190. When I tried to install them they wouldn't even fit!. It was like they were too heavy. Plus they didn't have the little phillips screws to tighten them down either. So, I returned them.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I might find a set of REASONABLY priced sunvisors for a 79 SC Targa? New sets are just too damned expensive

Leland Pate

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[This message has been edited by Leland Pate (edited 02-22-2000).]

Don't know if its too late for your visors, after being subjected to "home-insulation in a can," but you can restore the visors by cutting them open, very carefully, along their seams with a sharp razor. You can them refill them with foam from an upholstery shop, and a thin board cut to size to give them shape and firmness (experiment with different materials until you find something that holds its shape well). You then glue them back together carefully using crazy glue.

I did this on my 914 visors, and they still look great after many years. The most surprising part is how well the visors glue back together, you can't tell they were ever taken apart.

This should work on the 911 visors. I probably would just buy new visors if your car is a show car, but for a daily driver I think the above is worth giving a try!

Brian

Brian,
do u glue all the vinyl to the foam, or just along the vinyl seams?

You just reglue the seams. And, use as little glue as possible, doing it as neatly as possible.

Brian

Leland,

Why don't you buy a used pair from a late model 911. I did that in my '73 911s targa. They look great, but aren't "correct" for my car.

Neil
'73 911S targa

That is probably what I will do.
I just thought you all might find it entertaining to hear what happened to my old ones. . . Regardless, it wasn't funny at the time, but everyone involved had a pretty good chuckle over it.

Would a place like PartsHeaven sell something like that?

leland Pate

[This message has been edited by Leland Pate (edited 02-22-2000).]

Leland,

The visors on my 78 SC Targa were in bad shape, so I went to a upholstery shop and purchased a yard of black vynil. I then went to a home depo in my area and purchased some foam underlayment about 1/4 thick.

The visors have a metal frame to sandwich between the foam. I traced the old visor out before I disassembled them.

I then folded the vinyl over the foam and trimmed them leaving about 1/2 inch around.

The back (which is the edge facing you) is the folded end. The front along the headliner is where the seam will be shen you sew them.

Trace the outline of the foam onto the vynil and sew it inside out, starting from the narrow end. Stop at the wide end, turn the vinyl right side out and insert the frame. Tuck in the edges and finish sewing.

You will be amazed how great they will look when you are finished. They look as good as the originals without the cost.

Regards

Steve

Thanks Steve,
That sounds like a good alternative. . . if I can get my hands on a sewing machine.


I ripped off the cover of one of my sunvisors to get a look at the frame. A couple of questions:
Are there supposed to be two pieces of foam (top and bottom)?
And how exactly did you sew up the wide end? (I get the Sew inside out part but am not sure how to close it up without showing the seam).
Did you use any glue to hold the vinyl in contact with the foam?

Anyway, thank you very much for the tip!
Leland

____79 SC Targa

[This message has been edited by Leland Pate (edited 02-22-2000).]

Well, Well,
Actually my wife ended up doing all the work ( a Christmas present spread over two years ). She used a plastic/foam around 3/8" thick from a fabric store wraped around a mesh plastic sheet also from same store and covered the whole thing with first grade leather from an hobby shop. total cost was around $50.00 for the pair ( she used old original visor as templates ) with millions of labor hours but the results are superb...
maybe by far the best items in my car ( 70'911T). She said she'd rather die than do it again but isn't that what we all say everytime we do something " extensive " on our car!!!!
Thierry.