1974 450 SL fix you own sun visors!

[danwashuk]

This forum has been so helpful to me that I wanted to give something back.

I fixed the sun visors on my 450 SL for about $30.00 worth of materials.

Here's what you need:

1. foam sheets from one of those hobby stores $7.50
2. spray glue, sort of an arisol contact cement $5.00
3. vinyl repair kit $15.00
4. xacto knife or razor blades


I removed the entire sun visor from the car, rotate the rod until you can pull it out of the visor. slit the visor open along the seam that would be closest to the winshield. Remove the innerds, foam and a sort of wire frame. Cut sheets of the foam to the basic shape of the visor leaving a little extra to be cut with scissors later. The foam I used was not much more that 1 mm in thickness, so I used 7 sheets glued together. The middle sheet is cut different than the rest. Use the inside edge of the wire frame from inside the visor as a template to cut the middle sheet. To assemble the foam sheets, first glue three of them together to make one thick sheet, then glue the other three simular sheets together. Now you have the two thick sheets and the one smaller sheet. Spray the inside surfaces with the glue, and assemble them with the wire frame in the middle. Now you have the basic shape of the sun visor. Cut the foam with scissors along the embedded metal frame such that it just fits inside the vinyl sunvisor cover. Using some large rubber bands around the visor to hold the vinyl in place and the glue from the repair kit, glue the vinyl back together. Glue in spots between the rubber bands, allow to dry move the rubber bands and glue again, until you have the slit glued back completly. Finally, using the instructions from the vinyl repair kit mix some paint to match your color apply the paint and seal it with the hot iron provided with the kit. As the instructions say never touch the hot iron directly to the vinyl. Always use the embossed paper in between.

When I was done with the vinyl repair you could hardly see that it had been repaired. I repaired both my visors this way and I think they are better that new ones, slightly thinner and more firm that the original foam.