Sun visor reupholstery

[pizzaman09]

I am reupholstering the headliner and sun visors in my 90 Comanche Eliminator.  These sun visors have the lit vanity mirrors.  For reference here are some pictures after I got the clamshell apart.  The clamshell pinches the two pieces of fabric in.

There is a built in micro switch. 

The micro switch is activated by a little plastic pin on the mirror assembly.

Note the pin that clips the visor near the mirror, needs to be slid out in order to open the clamshell. 

[JZLAJeep]

Nice! Are you going to use the fleece blanket trick to recover or what are you going to use? One of my visors is mouse eaten from the pickup sitting in a field for 5+ years before we acquired it. We'll likely try to replace both with visors from a junk yard, but may need to recover.

[AZJeff]

You can buy headliner material as some fabric/sewing stores.   It’s more stretchy than regular fabric, and you might find it in a close match color.

[pizzaman09]

I am also doing the headliner, I purchased some foam backed headliner material on Amazon, should be here in a few days.  I plan to use the headliner material on the mirrors.  

 

Surprisingly my vanity lights still work, I plan to clean the contacts.

[A-man930]

Following!  

[pizzaman09]

Original fabric layout, my passenger visor fabric was in fairly good shape

 

Swivel post side.  The fabric is all one piece sandwiched together at the seam.

 

The cover fabric is one piece.

 

These clips are on the non mirror side.  I carefully removed the fabric from the clamped plastic so it could be used later as a pattern.  Once I had the non mirror side exposed, I jambed a screwdriver in to pull the thin plastic cross piece out from under the clip and then pulled that portion of the shell apart.  The plastic is surprisingly flexible and not brittle.  I mangled things a bit but it will definitely clip back together.

 

Once open, I vacuumed all the old foam out and cleaned all the electrical connections.  I Dremel wire wheeled the switch contact, ground contact to the rotating mount and the bulb sockets.  Be careful all everything is small and probably easy to break/bend.  The ground rotary contact and bulbs got some Ox-Gard to help with conductivity.

 

The previously flaky connection works perfectly now.

[pizzaman09]

Utilized the original fabric as a template.

 

Slid the slot over thr mount.

 

Next step is to install the mirror.

 

You will need to trim the fabric around the mirror a little on the inside to prevent it blocking the light. 

 

Following step was to use small pieces of duct tape to hold the fabric in place all around prior to folding closed.

 

When snapping it together, it's very tricky to get the brass spring switch under neath the little plastic pin on the bottom of the mirror lid which actuates the switch.

 

Start by holding the curved end to the closed position with a finger then fold the mirror closed clipping the snaps together nearest the clamshell hinge. Once you think you have the pin behind the brass spring, let go and remove your hand.

 

Snap together the rest of the snaps, they go together pretty easy.

 

When done it should look like this

 

Final product.

[dasbulliwagen]

I had a local upholstery guy re do mine after I got my seat redone. I had him use the same black vinyl as the seat. Cost $60, had them back the next day. Mine arent lighted, and the base was the old fiberboard stuff. I'm not sure if I took any pics or not. Ill check on my phone and post if I find any.

[pizzaman09]

Installed with fresh headliner!

[Pete M]

a thing of beauty!   

[Drahcir495]

Well Done! I had a good time redoing mine too. I would have used a dremel wheel on mine if I had seen someone do this before. Thank you for sharing 

[pizzaman09]

On 5/31/2023 at 7:35 PM, Drahcir495 said:

Well Done! I had a good time redoing mine too. I would have used a dremel wheel on mine if I had seen someone do this before. Thank you for sharing 

You are welcome.

 

Several months later the visors and electrical connections are still working perfectly.  I did have to pull my headliner and glue it a second time as all of the fabric dropped.  I'm guessing I didn't use enough spray adhesive.  The second time I used the 3M headliner adhesive instead of 3M super 77.  Additionally I did it on a warmer day within the temperature range listed on the adhesive can.

[Drahcir495]

Yep, when I used the 3M super 77 on the XJ it sagged too. 

 

You really need to post this in the DIY section too. I would be very helpful to others