Sun visors - reupholster or buy "new"?

[Emily Koch]

First time posting here!

 

I recently inherited my dad's 2002tii. While most of it's in great condition, I noticed that the foam on both sun visors is, for lack of a better word, disintegrating because of age. After looking online, I found a lot of the more visible parts supply stores online are pricing them at about $120-150 apiece. However, a local auto upholsterer quoted me for doing repairs at $100 each. The material on the outside and the mirrors on my existing visors are both in pretty good shape. If it were you, what would you do? Or is there an option I'm not thinking of?

Edited June 4, 2020 by Emily Koch
Macbook Pro keyboard strikes again! Corrected the model to a tii.

[JsnPpp]

Hi, and Welcome!

 

I haven't priced visors recently. If OE is 120-150 then I would go with new personally and perhaps sell the originals to someone to offset the cost. $100 each is too close to $120 in my opinion. If it was $100 for both then it is slightly different.

 

I feel comfortable saying that most of us have decent visors that have foam degradation...

 

Maybe there are other options. I'm curious as to what the upholsterer would do, I think the vinyl is heat sealed closed?

 

Jason

[NYNick]

Welcome Emily. I bought a 74Tii that had dirty, ugly visors. Yes, they were crunchy because the interior foam or whatever inside had degraded, but they were together.

 

I tried cleaning them with a hand cleaning product called "Goop" that you can get at any auto parts store. It worked like a charm and really brought them back to life.

 

Yes, they're still crunchy but I don't care. They look 100 times better and I rarely use them anyway.

 

Good luck with you Dad's car1

[FunElan]

Welcome! I agree with the sentiment above^ You could also see if Terry Sayther in Austin has some good used ones. 

 

My sunvisors don't have much foam but still block the sun pretty well

[Emily Koch]

Hi Jason! Great to see another Austin 2002 owner here.

 

I'm a little unsure myself, to be honest. Might be worth a call to see what they'd do. It seems like, just because of the age of the parts, if I get an OE part I'm bound to hit that degradation sooner or... slightly less soon. Maybe if they haven't been exposed to regular use, that isn't the case? Though, if the upholsterer can actually replace that foam, that should hold up a long time without puffiness. I'm just not sure how.

[JsnPpp]

1 hour ago, Emily Koch said:

Hi Jason! Great to see another Austin 2002 owner here.

 

I'm a little unsure myself, to be honest. Might be worth a call to see what they'd do. It seems like, just because of the age of the parts, if I get an OE part I'm bound to hit that degradation sooner or... slightly less soon. Maybe if they haven't been exposed to regular use, that isn't the case? Though, if the upholsterer can actually replace that foam, that should hold up a long time without puffiness. I'm just not sure how.

 

Yes! Just noticed that! A good crowd of us here in Austin.

 

We have monthly cars/coffee events at Mozarts (on hold for time being) but in the interim perhaps clean them (Goop or I have used soft scrub w/ bleach) and drive it the way it is. If you bring the car we can take a look at perhaps provide more recommendations.

 

Jason

[Crash513]

Welcome to the community!  

 

I had the same problem with the visors in my '73 tii when restoring the car.  I was able to get a pair of newer (not new) visors that had been sitting in long term storage from someone that was liquidating their old parts inventory.  The had very good foam, but were filthy.  I also used goop to clean them, but they were still pretty dull.  So I carefully masked them off and painted both sides with SEM Color Coat flexible interior coating.  I found a shade of off white that looks very close to the original, and a flat black that is a perfect match.  So if you can get a used pair that have more foam intact and are not "crunchy" they are really no that hard to make new looking.

 

Two other options I considered are buying NOS parts (new, old stock), and buying aftermarket replacements.  Every so often a pair of NOS visors will show up in the "parts for sale" list here in the FAQ classifieds.  But they get snapped up quick when they do, so check frequently and jump on it if you get a chance to.   

 

Good luck and enjoy your car.  You will find a lot of help and support in this community.

 

Crash

[bianchini]

not sure if you are trying to keep this 2002tii 100% stock down to the sunvisors, BUT if you are not..... sun visors out of an e28 fit perfectly and are built better than the 2002 ones. And they are cheaper too-> https://www.ebay.com/itm/82-88-BMW-E28-5-Series-Front-Sun-Visor-Pair-Black-525i-524td-535is-533i-528e-M5/133424310596?epid=1311182291&hash=item1f10b56944:g:bRsAAOSwD4Je0bwQ

[Conserv]

OEM sunvisors remain fairly available — generally $300-ish a pair. I believe they’re generally NOS (new old stock), but the sheer number that remain available is confusing. Were replacements made decades after ‘02 production stopped? Possibly.

 

My one observation about the OEM visors is that 100% appear to be sets for right-hand drive cars (England, Japan, Australia, etc.): vanity mirror on the left-side visor; no vanity mirror on the right-side visor.  The original visors had no mirror on the driver’s side and a vanity mirror on the passenger side. So if you have a left-hand drive tii, as was sold in the States, you’ll be swapping sides for the single vanity mirror if you install an OEM set. Most owner’s could care less about this minor deviation from stock. A few will fuss about it.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

Edited June 4, 2020 by Conserv

[BarneyT]

Welcome Emily, we have a great group of vintage BMW owners in Austin we get together the third Saturday of the month in the morning by the hula hut west of downtown ...if you’ll send me your email address I’ll  add you to our email list.

Barney

[theNomad]

E28 visors come out at a bit of a different angle than stock and my clip is very tight against the clip hole. I wedged them on, folded them up and will leave them alone for the most part. 

Edited June 5, 2020 by theNomad

[Greg R aka Big_Lebowski]

Hey Emily,  

 

Welcome aboard!  As Jason and Barney mentioned, we have a good number of 02s in and around the ATX.  I’ll PM you to give you my contact information.  I organize our monthly 02 Cars & Coffee and would love for you to join us.  There’s a vast amount of knowledge in the group and a fantastic group of people.  Not sure what part of town you’re in but Barney, Ed, Mike and I are in the Cedar Park / Leander area.  
 

Greg Resa

[John_in_VA]

1 hour ago, theNomad said:

E28 visors come out at a bit of a different angle than stock and my clip is very tight against the clip hole. I wedged them on, folded them up and will leave them alone for the most part. 

 

Aren't they black on both sides?

[Mike Self]

I've not tried it yet, but hopefully someone on the board will give my idea a try...

1. Make a frame from two pieces of 1/4" plywood or Masonite, fastened to a wood base and placed so they're the same distance apart as a sunvisor is thick, with a couple of brackets at the top to keep the two vertical pieces parallel.
2. buy a can of flexible sealing foam--the kind that expands as it cures, but not the variety that expands 4-5 times.
3. make a small slit in the sunvisor seam, near the arm, and shake out (or use a vacuum cleaner) to remove as much of the crumbly stuff inside as you can.  
4. Place the now deflated sunvisor between the two boards, with the slit up, and squirt foam into the interior.  Just not too much, remembering it expands.  Seal up the slit with duct tape, and let it cure.  

Maybe this'll work, maybe not, but it's worth a try...on an old, beat up sunvisor...

 

mike

 

[theNomad]

2 hours ago, John_in_VA said:

 

Aren't they black on both sides?

yes, just like e30 but slightly different shape

https://nomads2002.blogspot.com/2020/02/sunvisor-replacement-digging-into-bmw.html