My 91's driver side visor wouldn't stay up and was split at the seam. As I could not find a replacement or, a shop offering to repair, I took it apart to see how it was made and may be fix it. FYI, the black leather case is just there to hold it up, for taking pictures.
Removed 2 Phillips screws which fastened it to the roof and it popped off easily.
I was able to easily pull out the plastic, L shaped mounting bracket which mounts the visor to the roof (you must twist it around while pulling out). The bracket and the rod are one piece and made of plastic (ABS?). The rod itself is of a tapering, round shape but about an inch wide section at the end (which plugs into the visor) is notched flat. There is another, small notch at the other end of the rod which protrudes a bit. It's designed to keep the rod from coming out once you push it into visor body and twist into place.
I used a kitchen knife to cut at the seam (a box cutter would be a better tool). The other end of the visor is pivoted to the roof using another, small plastic bracket. This bracket is attached to the visor with one small steel screw which screws directly into foam. This bracket also has a plastic guide pin, which plugs into a hole in the visor, to better secure it.
The visor body seems to be molded out of some type of hard, foam type material. It’s then covered with a thin, vinyl film which seems glued on to the foam body.
The receptacle into which the L shaped mounting bracket plugs into is made of steel. It was likely surrounded by foam during molding process. It was bonded to foam and I took extra effort to cut some foam & expose it. The metal receptacle has approx one inch wide U shaped spring steel clamp, which is riveted to it. There seemed an additional sheet of sticky foam type material between the molded foam and the clamp, which was gooey and hard to remove/clean.
One side of the U shaped clamp is flat and the other rounded, to match the notched/rounded shape on the mounting bracket rod. As you rotate the visor, the rod's flat, notched part would mate/match with the flat part of U shaped spring steel plate, thereby holding the visor in position, by pressure.
I noticed that the clamp alone did not seem to have sufficient tension/strength to hold the visor up. It may have worn with age or, it needs the foam around it for additional strength. IMHO, the latter seems more likely the case. Is that probably why the visor generally splits near this area? Let me know what you guys think.
The other, small notch in the mounting bracket rod is simply there to keep the rod in position once you push it in and twist into place.
So there you have it. I'm positive I can’t fix this thing :biggrin: and IMHO it would be really hard and/or a lot of work for anyone to fix this piece. Is it a poor design and could have been made better? Feel free to comment.
Removed 2 Phillips screws which fastened it to the roof and it popped off easily.
I was able to easily pull out the plastic, L shaped mounting bracket which mounts the visor to the roof (you must twist it around while pulling out). The bracket and the rod are one piece and made of plastic (ABS?). The rod itself is of a tapering, round shape but about an inch wide section at the end (which plugs into the visor) is notched flat. There is another, small notch at the other end of the rod which protrudes a bit. It's designed to keep the rod from coming out once you push it into visor body and twist into place.
I used a kitchen knife to cut at the seam (a box cutter would be a better tool). The other end of the visor is pivoted to the roof using another, small plastic bracket. This bracket is attached to the visor with one small steel screw which screws directly into foam. This bracket also has a plastic guide pin, which plugs into a hole in the visor, to better secure it.
The visor body seems to be molded out of some type of hard, foam type material. It’s then covered with a thin, vinyl film which seems glued on to the foam body.
The receptacle into which the L shaped mounting bracket plugs into is made of steel. It was likely surrounded by foam during molding process. It was bonded to foam and I took extra effort to cut some foam & expose it. The metal receptacle has approx one inch wide U shaped spring steel clamp, which is riveted to it. There seemed an additional sheet of sticky foam type material between the molded foam and the clamp, which was gooey and hard to remove/clean.
One side of the U shaped clamp is flat and the other rounded, to match the notched/rounded shape on the mounting bracket rod. As you rotate the visor, the rod's flat, notched part would mate/match with the flat part of U shaped spring steel plate, thereby holding the visor in position, by pressure.
I noticed that the clamp alone did not seem to have sufficient tension/strength to hold the visor up. It may have worn with age or, it needs the foam around it for additional strength. IMHO, the latter seems more likely the case. Is that probably why the visor generally splits near this area? Let me know what you guys think.
The other, small notch in the mounting bracket rod is simply there to keep the rod in position once you push it in and twist into place.
So there you have it. I'm positive I can’t fix this thing :biggrin: and IMHO it would be really hard and/or a lot of work for anyone to fix this piece. Is it a poor design and could have been made better? Feel free to comment.
