1965 330 Series 1 Sun Visor repair

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AEB
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1965 330 Series 1 Sun Visor repair

Post by AEB »

The foam in my sun visors has totally deteriorated. Is there a vendor who can replace the foam inside of the original sun visors? They have some type of heat welded/pressed seams. Thanks.
Art
1965 330 GT 2+2 Series 1 Interim car sn 7091
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tyang
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Re: 1965 330 Series 1 Sun Visor repair

Post by tyang »

AEB wrote:The foam in my sun visors has totally deteriorated. Is there a vendor who can replace the foam inside of the original sun visors? They have some type of heat welded/pressed seams. Thanks.
Hi Art,

Welcome the the forum!

This problem with the heat sealed visors has been on my list of "to-dos" for years! As far as I know, no one has come up with a complete solution. I have seen some people carefully cut open the visor on one end, slide out the internals, replace the foam, and carefully glue the seam back together with crazy glue.

I've also seen early Porsches with the same type of visors and thought about pursuing that section of the market to see how they solved the problem.

It would seem all you would have to do it make a jig with a heating element that would heat the vinyl enough to melt, and you could make new visors. The cost to do this would probably be more than the number of times you would need to provide this service, so no one has done it yet. Most visors are replaced with a sewn edge.

Tom
'63 330 America #5053
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peterp
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Re: 1965 330 Series 1 Sun Visor repair

Post by peterp »

I don't know whether it would work for the thicker vinyl on the visor, but believe it or not, these cheap handheld "heat sealers" (https://www.amazon.com/Premium-Heat-Sea ... aler&psc=1) work really well for making a very thin heat seal on any open plastic bag. To use it, you vary the speed based upon the thickness of what you are sealing, so my complete guess is that it might work fine on thicker vinyl if you move it slowly across the seam.

I'm not sure how you can get the visor apart exactly along the outside seam, but I suspect that once you have it apart, you can reseal it with the above. DISCLAIMER: Definitely test it on spare vinyl before you try it on the 330 visor!!
Peter P
1966 330 2+2 series 2 #8169
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treue
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Re: 1965 330 Series 1 Sun Visor repair

Post by treue »

When it came time to restore the visors on 9129, my upholsterer, Dan Kirkpatrick (Dan Kirkpatrick Interiors, Chouteau, OK) contacted Bob Smith about them. Bob said that Ferrari judges accept a more practical sewn closure since the heat sealed method is virtually impossible to duplicate, apparently, even by Bob Smith. While mine was not judged while I had it, Bob Smith is kind of an unimpeachable authority on this. See below.

Tom
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Tom Treue
67 330GT 2+2, No. 9129 (former owner)
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peterp
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Re: 1965 330 Series 1 Sun Visor repair

Post by peterp »

Here is the heat seal you get with the cheap heat sealer I posted previously. I used it to cut a 45 degree corner on a vinyl folder that is fairly thick. The sealer "heat seals" the edge and cuts the outside portion to create a smooth edge. In the photo below, the portion in the middle is the heat sealed/cut portion -- the part on the left is the original edge of the folder. It comes out very nice and is easy to do if you move it slowly. The vinyl is completely sealed by the heat seam. It's very easy to cut/seal, probably not so easy to guide it perfectly. If you can cut only the end of the visor to replace the foam out, it might not be difficult to reseal just the end.

This is the cut corner:
Image

This is what the seam of my original visor looks like:
Image

This is the cheap cutter:
Image

Image
Peter P
1966 330 2+2 series 2 #8169
Jumprun
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Re: 1965 330 Series 1 Sun Visor repair

Post by Jumprun »

The later Porsche 356 and early 911/912 both use sun visors with heat sealed edges, and years ago the repair was to carefully cut on the seam and glue back after replacing frames and foam. This type of repair is no longer needed because there are vendors that supply new with the correct seam, so this tells me there is a cottage industry to do the job right, so maybe do some research to find mom and pop.
Jumprun
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Re: 1965 330 Series 1 Sun Visor repair

Post by Jumprun »

Oops, sorry, info already provided by previous poster.
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