Sun Visor Restoration DIY

[lindol]

Thought it was time to contribute something to the board, I hope this will be useful to others here.

 

Having been plagued with the so called puffy visors I decided to try and fix them after at least 10 years of saying, " I'll do something about it one day."

Here are the visors from the SC just after I removed them from the car, they don't look too bad in this picture, but they felt like I was handling half-empty crisp bags. I wonder, am I the only one who felt compelled to crush the foam between my thumb and finger whenever I moved the visor?

 

As an extra challenge I tried to do the repair with materials that I already had either in the house or garage.

After removing the visors I decided to renovate them one at a time and hopefully learn from any mistakes on the first one and apply that knowledge to the second visor.

 

On the first visor I decided to cut it open along the seam on the edge closest to the door.

 

As the following pictures reveal, the original foam padding had deteriorated quite significantly.

 

Edited August 7, 2009 by lindol

[lindol]

While this length of cut was fine for the removal of the internal bits, it turned out to be too small for the new internal parts.

Here’s a layout of what the visor looks like, it’s a combination of wire framework and foam padding.

 

 

And here is a drawing I made of the template, this is relevant for my SC Targa model, not sure what other models or years could use this.

 

[lindol]

Here's the layout showing the outer edge of the visor, the hatched area is the material to be cut away. The remaining board and wireframe will reside inside the vinyl approximately as shown, missing from this is the foam padding.

 

 

 

My plan for the renovation was quite simply to use a bit of hardboard,

• cut it to the appropriate size,

• add foam to it,

• put it back inside the vinyl skin,

• and then glue the edges closed.

Turned out to be a lot of trial and error fitting to get everything the way I liked it too.

But, as for the internal parts; I needed to keep the wireframe in order to keep the mounting points as well as to be able to tighten the mounting brackets so the visors would stay up when you wanted them out of the way.

 

 

 

 

As the pictures illustrate above I was able to create features on the hardboard that would slot into the wireframe and in this way get the parts positioned properly.

Trying to test fit the template revealed the original opening was too small. This led to my first mistake, cutting along the seam on the lower edge as you see in the picture.

 

Edited August 7, 2009 by lindol

[lindol]

Next, I had to come up with some foam padding, I wanted something with a bit of density to give some form and shape to the visor.

I had the perfect source, my wife’s stretching mat, actually a mat from my camping days- do you think she’ll notice?

 

 

[lindol]

This foam is about 10mm thick, has some firmness to it, deforms but will try to spring back rather slowly, all in all, rather easy to work with. I then glued one of these to the template and wire assembly to sandwich the wire in-between.

 

 

Gave that a trial fit into the vinyl and found it still lacking a bit of thickness. I needed another bit of foam padding, but the foam I already had used was too thick to be used on both sides. Luckily another foam padding source was found…

 

 

 

 

This was perfect as it was also free, an old outdoor seat cushion with much softer density foam. Here’s a picture of the sandwich structure, hmmm still missing one ingredient…good old duct tape/silver tape/racers tape.

 

 

This is the tape wrap in progress; I purposely had left foam absent from the small end thinking it would be too thick. I later added the foam back as the final visor looked wrinkled without it. I wound the tape on without putting too much tension on the foam padding as I wanted it to be able to fill the space inside too.

 

[lindol]

Now comes the tricky bit, glue this back together so it looks good. This turned out to be a bit of a challenge, my poor choice in deciding where to cut the visor open would be regretful. More about that after the passenger visor is shown.

 

Back to the closing of the hole. Basically, I used contact cement to bring the cut back together and used ordinary tape to hold it in place while it dried.

 

[lindol]

And on to the passenger visor....

 

Most important lesson learned from the first visor was to open the other visor differently so that it will be less visible in the car. So, it was slit open along the top edge of the second visor.

 

 

This side was as deteriorated as the other one, lots of foam powder also fell out too.

 

 

 

Here’s a view of what’s left inside.

 

 

You can see the mirror has a backing structure that I would have to allow for in my replacement foam/wireframe sandwich.

 

 

 

Here’s some pictures from the passenger visor rework.

 

 

The location of the mirror card was found by doing a trial fit. The foam pad was actually indented by the mirror during the trial, so it was just a question of cutting out that area from the pad after removing the sandwich assy.

 

And finally...gluing the visor back together again.

 

 

At this point I hadn’t spent any money on this repair, just used items around the house including:

• a bit of hardboard,

• foam from a camping mat,

• foam from an old seat cushion and

• some contact cement.

 

But…not quite liking the result I decided to try a vinyl repair kit I had bought last year-with mixed results.

[lindol]

This tool definitely requires quite a bit of practice in order to get proficient. But first, below are some “before” pictures.

 

 

As you can see the glued edge is noticeable and was actually pulling apart slightly in places due to the tension from the foam inside.

So, I decided to try the vinyl repair kit, here is a picture of the edge after using the tool, not a bad result on this, the second visor.

 

 

The other visor, the first one, isn’t quite as nice as I was still coming to terms with how much heat and time was necessary to bond the two edges and liquid together, I ended up melting a bit of the visor and so had to really repair it using the kit.

Additionally, for those interested in weight….

 

• Visor before renovation = 12oz. or 325 grams

• Visor after renovation = 1lb. 2oz. or 530 grams.

 

 

But, I have succeeded in getting rid of the half-empty crunchy crisp bags, err…visors, the density is less than in a 993 visor but I think it’s a huge improvement. Not only that this repair really appealed to me as a chance to fix a Porsche part without spending a big sum of money, I had all the raw materials already lying around. The only part that wasn’t quite meeting the criteria might be the vinyl repair kit; I bought that last year for about £22 plus shipping.

This repair wouldn’t be acceptable to every Porsche owner, those that demand perfection would probably be disappointed, but for me I gain the satisfaction of having repaired it myself, the visors are perfectly functional and I didn’t spend a fortune either. The only place they don’t look as delivered from the factory is along the edges that were opened and then sealed back up.

Here’s a few “after” picture of the visors.

 

[lindol]

And finally a before and after shot side by side.

 

 

I am pleased with the result and as I said above I hope there are others here who will now see it doesn't have to be expensive or impossible to do a job like this one.

[Lesworth]

Nice work there

[swift911]

You have real patience, nice one.

 

Bob

[lindol]

You have real patience, nice one.

 

Bob

 

Thanks, but in reality I spread this job out over a few weeks, needed time to plan the next move as I was going.

[GP911]

Well done,

[scottbombedout]

Fantastic job!

[Engleflick]

This is a project I hope to do on my sunvisors - as I too have the 'packet of crisps'. This gives me a good insight and ideas on how to proceed - Thankyou!