Rear Sunshade Repair

[RNajarian]

Due to rear occupants allowing the retractable rear window sunshades to retract and slam down into the top of the door, the fabric began to separate from the plastic frame.

My brother in law’s Audi had the same problem. It went unchecked an eventually the fabric completely separated and completely retracted into the door.

Fortunately I noticed this problem early and came up with a fix. I apologize for not taking photos at each step, but hopefully my description of the process will help.

Below you will see the sunshade in use. The pressure/tension of pulling it into position and the force of the quick retraction caused the fabric to come out of the top frame of the sunshade about one inch. Interestingly at the most posterior portion of both sunshades.


The first step was to have some working room. Using two plastic clamps (Home Depot/Lowe’s/Harbor Freight) I pinched the fabric allowing the top 4 inches of the sunshade to remain exposed and not under tension. Below is an example using the clamps and a piece of paper. The top of the door would be the area underneath the two black plastic clamps.


I then used A LOT of blue painter’s tape to cover as much of the exposed area as possible, including the top frame of the sunshade. The reason for this is the epoxy I used can get messy and end up all over the place.

Next I verified the separated fabric could be completely reinserted the into the sunshade frame.

I mixed enough 5 minute epoxy (that bonds to plastic) and put it into an irrigation syringe (used by oral surgeons to irrigate/rinse out the sockets of teeth. Available at drug stores)


With the separated fabric reinserted into the sunshade frame I injected the epoxy into the channel of the sunshade frame where the fabric had separated from the frame, allowing it to fill up the channel. Once cured the epoxy bonds to the sunshade fabric and locks it securely in the sunshade frame, preventing any further fabric separation. Be careful not to over do it and get excess epoxy on the frame or fabric. At this point you need to either hold the repair together and patiently wait for the 5 minute epoxy to cure or use tape and plastic clamps to keep the fabric in place while it cures. MAKE SURE the fabric does NOT come out of the channel prior the epoxy curing. Below you can see the finished repair of the sunshade.


Once the epoxy reached it’s initial cure after 5 minutes, I left the clamps holding the 4 inches of fabric in place and positioned a small towel under the exposed 4 inches of sunshade and let the repair achieve the final cure overnight.

This is a fairly straight forward repair. It’s been one month since the repair and both sides seem to be doing well.

Hopefully this helps someone, I know I had NO desire to remove the door panel to replace the sunshade, and I suspect others feel the same way.