How To: Recovering a Sun Visor

[dblincoln3]

My Visor material was in bad shape so I attempted to recover it and I thought I would post the results along with the steps I followed to recover it. Here is what I started with.

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I took a utility knife and cut along the perimeter where the cloth meets the black vinyl.

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I bent the foam backing card slightly to pop it out of the vinyl cover.

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I then removed the thin strip of cloth that was still glued on the inner perimeter of the black vinyl piece and I used that piece of fabric to match it with some new headliner material, as that material had not been exposed to the elements. I ended up going with charcoal from www.yourautotrim.com. Hopefully it will not be to dark when finished, as I plan on using the same material to redo the headliners as well. Here is a picture of the original strip over top of the charcoal fabric from yourautotrim.

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The only problem with this material is that it already had the foam backing applied and they did not sell just the cloth alone. I wanted the visors to match the headliners, so I had to peel the foam away from the cloth, which took some time and patience to remove completely.
I wrapped the foam card in cloth, only gluing it to the card around the perimeter and back edge, where the material would be covered by the vinyl when reassembled.

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I then put the card back into the vinyl shell, masked off the exposed cloth to protect it from spray adhesive and using a flat head screwdriver, slightly separated the vinyl from the cloth and sprayed the adhesive into the interior gap.

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I worked my way around the border of the cloth and vinyl with the screw driver and adhesive making sure the entire interior perimeter was covered. I then taped the vinyl down to hold it firmly to the fabric until it set up. I then removed all the tape and used some goo gone to remove any glue that seeped out onto the exposed cloth. This was the final result.

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[skill]

nice job! I too have this project in the next couple of days. I'll be placing in the light gray headliner foam. Thanks for sharing your techniques as I'll be borrowing them! I'll add my photos as well on this thread. Are you gonna add the label on it now cuz it looks sharp!?

[mluder]

Nice work! When I recovered mine I did, quite literally, the exact same thing as you. I intended to write up a how-to but I was just too lazy to get around to it. Now you've saved me the effort.
Smart minds think alike.

Cheers
Steven

[PJ Grady Inc.]

Nicely done dblincoln. Nicely done!
Rob

[Ryan King]

I did a very similar job, but instead used a thin black vinyl as my material.

Unfortunately, it doesn't withstand the heat of the valley and is becoming wrinkly. I will be doing what you have done here soon.

Thanks!

-Ryan

P.S. I also contemplating just painting the visors black, after the removal of the fabric. Don't know how well those would look. But might give it a shot.