Vannin' Home Forums General Discussion Paint and Bodywork help modifying a visor

I found this visor on Craigs list for cheap. It is from an earlier Dodge van and I am modifying it to fit my 87. I just need to extend the sides to reach the windshield pillars and get the right angle I want. I mocked it up in cardboard and then cut some thin sheet metal using the cardboard templates.


Question: should I bond the sheet metal extensions to the fiberglass and then glass over the whole thing? Or should I take the sheet metal out and just build it up with glass? I know this thing will flex and twist in the wind. Maybe the sheet metal will make the sides too rigid? Let me know what you guys think.

It all mainly depends how much work you want to do, and how you want the end product to look.

In some ways, paint it and your done.
I cant tell how thick the metal is, but there shouldnt be anything wrong with mounting it the way it is. It should work fine. You want the mounting points to be firm, and not twist.

In another way, incase the metal in fiberglass, sand, paint and mount.

The long way around would be to use filler, make a mold,
and create a new one. You could even sell anything else you made with the mold.

I'm not sure how many fasteners per side you really need, but my vintage visor had a bunch (13 per side, most likely *far* more than necessary) when I pulled it off a wrecked mid Dodge van.



I've seen as few as two fasteners per side, though I'd not trust that to be sufficient to prevent stress cracks. There's apt to be plenty of lift and flutter on something as big and unaerodynamic as a visor in such a turbulent airflow area as the front end of a van's roof!

In case you think the ends aren't going to withstand the stress of flutter without cracking out your fasteners, you may want to consider building some sort of block to support the very center of your visor to reduce flutter substantially. Here's the wood brace my vintage Dodge visor had in the center:



The form fit arc portion of the wood brace was in contact with the leading edge of the roof. It was held to the roof with two long screws. Ugly, but effective. The flat portion of the wood extended out over the windshield.

BTW, McMaster Carr sells the snap cap style screw covers which are used to create a more finished appearance on exterior screws:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#screw-caps/=yr4pgo

Trucksnvans.com used to carry snap caps in multiple colors including chrome and gold, but they all appear to have been discontinued, at least from their website listings.

Thanks guys! After reading a ton of posts here about mounting a visor, I am going to leave the sheet metal in. It's very thin anyways. I think the bigger issue will be the center support. There's a glassed in steel center support that needs to be shortened for my application. After looking closely, I can tell it has been welded. Why? I am betting it was broken once before. I think Ram4ever's got the right math here. I better over-engineer this thing so I only have to do it once.

Sort of related question to this, how do you guys with visors keep the mounting holes sealed and prevent water from entering there? Seems like it would be very easy for rust to start there especially with the holes?

I'm going to use a marine product called "life seal" on the screw holes and also double stick mounting tape where the visor meets the windshield pillars.