puffy visors

I am trying to fix a pair of puffy visor for my 911. New visors are out of the question and I don't trust myself to cut them open and sew them back up. Has anyone ever taken visors to a professional upholsterer and had them repaired and at what cost? Thanks in advance.
Rich

I think the technique that's supposed to work quite well is by re-filling the visor pocket with expandable aerosol foam.
I'm thinking of doing it to my passenger one also, but I'm not sure yet how would be the best way to do this.
I'm thinking: Make a female former out of something easy to work with which is the same internal size as the original visor, put the squashy visor in this 'mould' and squirt the juice in a small corner slit in the visor's vinyl.
I wonder how much to put in tho...and also if a mould is actually required.
Anyone do this with good results here???

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'72 911 TE

I did this on my 911 this spring. I used expanding foam insulation in a can and cut a slit on both ends of the visor. One hole is used for venting the air out the other side. I then just used some small wood blocks to space the correct distance and put a weighted flat wood board on top. It worked great, but don't get the foam on the exterior of the visor because the stuff is very sticky.

I tried the foam in my visiors, it worked real well, I cut a small slit in the seam,
constructed a extension for the tube so that
it was able to go all the way into the visior
and used old magazines for weight and to
keep it consistant while it dried. For a year
it looked pretty good,Then, the foam started
to break up, I think from the heat, I live
in Texas,anyway, I wound up with lunpy visiors again.Performance Products sell
reproduction ones, I recommend biting the
bullet and getting new ones.

I have heard that the spray in foam can break down and drip on either the driver or passenger, depending of course on which visor was repaired. I have read that using 1/4" foam board cut to fit and slid into place, one on top of the wire frame and another on the bottom works great.

Steve
76 Targa

I tried the spray-in foam which promptly turned into goop in the Arizona heat. My recommendation is to avoid this method. I wound up sewing a new cover out of vinyl for the driver's side. Not pretty, but it'll suffice until I'm irritated enough by it to go buy a new set. The passenger's is lumpy as well, but I prefer lumpiness to goopiness and have done nothing to it (yet).

blue

FWIW I tried the "cut & restuff" approach a while back and ended up trashing my old Targa visors. Not as easy as you would like to believe after seeing the price of new ones! I went w/o visors for a couple years and then just this week installed some repros which are pretty nice but still pretty outrageously expensive.
Chris C.

Add my name to the list ! My visors had a terrible case of the puffies - they looked like head airbags !
I tried the foam stuff and I have just one word of caution - be sure to get the stuff that can harden WITHOUT air being present !
The stuff I used squirted in just fine and conformed to the shape I wanted - but NEVER hardened. They looked like saggy boobs.

There are two types of this stuff. One type you can shoot in an enclosed area and it will expand and harden. The other stuff needs air all around to harden. Read the can carefully.

I too, went without visors for awhile but recently I found a pair and I am awaiting their arrival to install in my car.



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Tom Sharpes
74 911 Targa
http://members.rennlist.com/5150targa

I just checked out the price of new visors. Are they nuts? Is there any cheaper alternative for replacement?

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1984 Targa

I just pu mine back in awhile ago. I had taken them out because they looked pretty bad. My wife snuck them out of my "spare parts bin" and took them to my moms house. My mom said it wasn't really easy but she slit the top of them open carefully along the whole length. Took out the foam and replaced it. She then used a hot glue gun and closed the opening. She overlapped (sp) one end over the other about 1/8th of an inch. I got them back for my birthday without even knowing they were gone. The new seam is not really visible because its along front ( when they are up ).



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Gunter
'82 SC Targa

I never realized this was an issue. When I had the headliner replaced in my car I kept the visors out. I have never used these things in my life and have no use for them. I always figured a good set of aviation sun glasses work better than obstucting your view. If I had known these things were worth something I'd given them to one of you guys.

Yeah! Toss em! They weigh too much! If you need a visor, film even dark film if is applied to the outside of the windshield won't crack the glass, (but don't try a real black film on the inside or you could crack it due to the incredible heat
variation in the glass while in the sun.)

Blizzard et. al. -- yep, I too ran my car w/o visors for a number of years. I ALWAYS wear my shades when driving so not a big deal at all. In fact, visors kinda bug me, at least in a small car like a 911 or 914! Not like you are swimming in extra headroom. But, something looks "wrong" if you don't have 'em.

Now for the insane resto project I went with the repro visors from Perf Prods -- they are quite acceptable quality, clones of the late style targa/cab visors, and around 1/2 the price of factory. (I bought them during the 20%-off sale last month.)

Third option -- not likely in my experience -- is to keep trolling the swapmeets, ebay etc. for a good used set. There probably is no such thing as a good used set! If there were, the guy wouldn't be selling them!

Chris C.

[This message has been edited by campbellcj (edited 09-07-2000).]