Recovering write up (sun visors and...)

**Smittro** · 02-01-2010, 11:42 AM

Okay one of our breathern has been trying to recover his sun visors, he did a nice job. But to maybe help him do a better job and others do the same I went ahead and took sometime to show how it can be done by a novice (me) and still look pretty good. Mostly it depends on how much time you're willing to spend to get it the way you like. Any further constructive info by others is very much appreciated. I'm no pro but I've covered a few things in my time. This is how I do it...

I start with these basic tools, and some test pieces..

First we'll cover a one way panel and pad it. This is a peice of 3/8 plywood I had laying around and some brown vinyl. I cut the vinyl about 3/4- 1" larger than the part. The over lap can very depending on what you're covering and padding thickness..

For our project we'll be using some 1" foam for our padding. Spray glue is a perfect way to secure the padding to your part. I cut ours to roughly the same size as our base part shown here.

Now we are ready to start covering. with padding in place I start on the long side and begin by securing one side of the vinyl to our board. Then we stretch our vinyl over our padding tightly and secure it to the other side of our board like so.

After then we move on to our ends and begin to secure them. There are a couple of ways to do our corners, but I'll give you the easiest way I know. I fold in the corners FIRST then secure then with tacks/staples. We then roll our short edges over like the ends of an X-mas present and staple them down. ( pull the vinyl tight and hold it down before placing each staple. It will then look something like this when you're done. Remeber to make sure (if using staples or tacks) to sink each one to be sure of a good tight hold on the vinyl.

Now we flip it over and inspect our work. Looks pretty good huh?

**Smittro** · 02-01-2010, 12:11 PM

Okay now for our sun visor project. First I cut a piece of 3/16" lawon(sp) board
in a rough shape of a common sun visor. See pic #1 it's the longer thinner board with the angles cut into it. My visors are perfect so I wont be tearing mine off the car but this will work for most.

Now we take some vinyl and trace our visor pattern on it first. Then add about 1/4" and draw a duplicate of the pattern for where we'll need to stitch. This will help keep our stitches nice and strait giving us like a guide to follow later on the sewing machine. Then we add a third line @ another 1/4" from the stich line. This will give us our cutting guide for later as well. When all your pattern lines have been placed it will look something like this...
Then take your pattern you've traced and lay it over a second piece of vinyl like this. Remember to place your pieces facing each other..

Now, on to the sewing machine. We'll be using red thread just for this demo cause it's easier to see in our pics.

This is what the stitch we remembered to sew on the middle line only looks like.

We will leave one side of our covering open so we can later turn the "pocket" right side out and easily slide in our visor panel. After all three sides are sewed up we then cut our pattern out @ the outer line only so it'll look like this after we cut it out.

Now we slide our panel into the pocket and close off the end. We now have a nice vinyl covered visor with hidden stiches and the seam centered on the leading edges of our new visor.

***Closing the end***

You will need to sew it shut by hand (1-2mm) seperation on your stitches take your time.. Your only sewing in a strait line for 3-6 in. so it is worth the teadium.(sp) Then with a small puddy knife, press it into the part. The seam will push it's way under/into the padding hiding the seam. Then with a hair dryer, (on high) heat the end you folded/tucked in till it's hot but DON'T burn it. Let cool and the vinyl is now permanetly in the shape you left it in...We're done and we look pretty clean too..

**Y2KPewterSS** · 02-01-2010, 02:58 PM

Added to museum

**justinmc978** · 02-01-2010, 03:01 PM

Originally Posted by Y2KPewterSS

Added to museum

and its well deserved! wow Smit, AWSOME write up! i'll deliver pics when i'm done

also how do you recomment closing off the open end?

**Smittro** · 02-01-2010, 05:58 PM

Originally Posted by justinmc978

and its well deserved! wow Smit, AWSOME write up! i'll deliver pics when i'm done

also how do you recomment closing off the open end?

My bad I'll fix above.

**Smittro** · 02-01-2010, 06:11 PM

Done.. Sorry doing 20 things @ once today..

**Smittro** · 02-01-2010, 06:13 PM

Originally Posted by Y2KPewterSS

Added to museum

Thank you Preston!!!! I'm no pro by any stretch of the E-maj, just how I do it is all.. Thanx Again P..

**justinmc978** · 02-01-2010, 07:07 PM

Originally Posted by Smittro

Done.. Sorry doing 20 things @ once today..

again man thanks, i cant tell you how much this helps

**Smittro** · 02-01-2010, 07:24 PM

Originally Posted by justinmc978

again man thanks, i cant tell you how much this helps

No prob brudda..

**Bouvers** · 02-01-2010, 08:33 PM

I hate to be an idiot here, but whats the first part for?

**Smittro** · 02-01-2010, 08:41 PM

Originally Posted by Bouvers

I hate to be an idiot here, but whats the first part for?

Notice it says "test" pieces..lol It's mostly just to demonstrait ONE way of panel covering. The piece is not for anything in particular..

**Bouvers** · 02-01-2010, 08:48 PM

Originally Posted by Smittro

Notice it says "test" pieces..lol It's mostly just to demonstrait ONE way of panel covering. The piece is not for anything in particular..

alright, thats about what I figured, I was just curious. Thanks for your time.

**Smittro** · 02-01-2010, 08:49 PM

Originally Posted by Bouvers

alright, thats about what I figured, I was just curious. Thanks for your time.

No prob.

**neophytal** · 02-06-2010, 07:57 AM

nice job!

**Smittro** · 02-06-2010, 09:51 PM

Originally Posted by neophytal

nice job!

I thank ya...

**pk222** · 02-12-2010, 01:58 PM

post isn't too old so I might get something back but how did you connect it to the rod that goes into the visor that connects it to the car? I've been trying to find new visors but haven't gotten much and it looks like yours came out great.

**justinmc978** · 02-12-2010, 03:55 PM

Originally Posted by pk222

post isn't too old so I might get something back but how did you connect it to the rod that goes into the visor that connects it to the car? I've been trying to find new visors but haven't gotten much and it looks like yours came out great.

the rod just slides out, turn it and work it for a while its not the easist thing