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anyone re-covered a visor?

  • Thread starter Thread starter tdr1919
  • Start date Start date
T

tdr1919

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my passenger visor is broken and the driver side is very faded. I stripped the passenger side of the covering and made a plastic support to repair it. I found some nice material to cover it but have no padding or really a clue on how cover it, any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Tom
 
Local Seamstress.....

My wife just did this for a friends pickup truck and it came out rather well.

Find a seamstress in the area and give it to them, shouldnt be very expensive. Theresa works out of our house and has a large clientel....should be easy to find one in your area.

If you get nothing, send me a pm and my wife will help out im sure.

Good luck, Chas:w
 
Thanks Chas,
good Idea, I'll try my local dry cleaner, maybe he has someone.
Tom
 
I'd like to follow this load too. Both my visors are somewhat torn due to my stupidly putting a sunglasses holder and garage door opener on them. When I fix them I'll try to fashion a piece of tough plastic to protect them in the future.
 
I have a local uphostery shop in town and they make boat covers, and anything else and when I talked to him about this he said it shouldn't be too expensive since it's winter work. You might want to check around your area for someone also. :w
 
Do a search within the forum, I remember a while back, one of the CAC members talked about covering his visors in leather. Too bad GM put cardboard in the things. Mine have separated at the corners so that now the ends flop like spastic doggy ears.
 
Do a search within the forum, I remember a while back, one of the CAC members talked about covering his visors in leather. Too bad GM put cardboard in the things. Mine have separated at the corners so that now the ends flop like spastic doggy ears.

Exactly, thats what mine look like, just like dog ears!
 
My side has the doggy ear but my shotgun side is o.k Whats the fix for the doggy ear?

Drive side is easier - just omit the stuff for the mirror.

What I did was strip the old visor material & padding off. save the hard paper cover that wraps around the metal support. clean all the padding mater off as best you can. cut the plastic tabs that retain the mirror assembly to the fiber board, and remove. Now lay the fiber board on top of a piece of wax paper on a flat surface, with 5 min epoxy glue the broken piece back on. I picked up a piece of white sintra board (3/16") from a local sign maker, anyone who does large format printing & mounting. It is light, pretty strong and easy to work with. I went to Walmart, bought some spray craft adhesive, heavy black cloth materia (as close to the visor material as I could get), black thread (interior/exterior grade)
white padding material (looks kind of like cotton) about a yard of each (make sure you have needles or get them now).
the sintra board has a peel off adhesive, set it under the visor you just epoxied, and with a felt tip trace out the design, dont worry about the holes you can do them later(for the mirror). after it is traced cut it with a utility knife hacksaw blade or whatever. peel the backing, and get your spray glue cause the sintra glue wasnt stong enough in my case. spray the sintra piece liberally and what is the bottom of the visor (as you look at it in the car, the smooth side of the fiber board) give it a liberal shot of adhesive. let them set for a minute to tack up, now press them together, they should bond nicely. you now have a fairly strong and light repair. Cut out the holes for the mirror. spay some glue on the hard paper piece that wrap around the metal and glue it on. now lay the padding out, this stuff is not real thick so you will have to put at least 2 layers on the visor. I folded it, layed the visor on top folded the padding over the front edge, cut to shape. Now i gave the visor a spray of adhesive, top and bottom, (work this right after you spray the glue so you can smooth the padding on) align the padding edge to the metal bar, keep it smooth and wrap it over the fiberboard edge and back up to the metal bar, trim it with your sissors. Because I doubled the padding, I lifted the edges and added some adhesive to keep it flat. Now trim all around the visor, make sure the padding edge extends the end of the fiber board, if you wrapped it as I did then you need not worry about the front edge. Now get your black material, we are going to sew it just like the original, cut a piece that has at least 2" excess figure you are going to fold it over the metal bar this time. lay the visor on the cut fabric, now cut a slit at the end where the metal rod extends, (like the original) now the fabric will lay flat. give the visor a tack coat of adhesive. postion it with so there is excess fabric around the edges to sow. Smooth the fabric and with some tension, pull it around the bar and smooth the top side. you will trim & sow at the same time. Practice first -start at the side where the metal exits. make sure you have 5 feet of thread in the needle, roll the edge of the material under (look at the original) top and bottom, if you have too much material trim it, you now hold the 2 rolled edges together to form a seam, (make sure not to make it too baggy you want a little tension on the material as you sow) pull the thread through and run the needle back down (not around the material) in the same spot (to a make starting point and secure the thread from unraveling) do this in the same spot 3 or 4 times and pull it tight. now work the material edges around the visor and make a flat stitch, keeping it taught as you go around.

for the mirror - place it on the finished visor, feel for the cut outs in the fiber board - now make sure you cut the right side! use a dry marker to make lines for the cut - make sure not to make too big a cut out! only the inside dimension of the mirror! peel off the pading that is glued to the fiber board, snake the wire through the material and out by the metal rod, I used a silicone based glue called ZAP - to glue the mirror assembly ( in case I need to pull it apart to change the bulbs) in but you can use epoxy. - please note I am not responsible in any way if you screw up your visor, do this at your own risk, I am not an a professional seamstress.
Tom
 

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