Sun visor cross-over info
Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 8:24 amTo assist those who will one day be faced with what to do when it comes to sun visors, I will offer the solution I came up with. Your solution may vary, but this worked for me. When I was completing my L110, I had to decide how to handle the sun visor restoration/replacement issue. My truck only had one visor for the driver's side and in order to provide a visor for the misses when she chose to honor me with a ride in the passenger seat, I knew that side needed a visor, too. (This is the Sunshine State!)
I began by looking around for what would adapt or could be scavenged from other more readily available brands of vehicles. (Funny how, in this hobby, when you need something you start observing that object anywhere you encounter it.) Not only did I need the visor, but the bracket that mounts to the windshield header panel. My observations and research brought me to the brackets and visors for the '48 - '52 Ford pick-up. Turns out the bracket mounting holes match the IH header panel and the internal spring doesn't need a hole bored in the header panel to accommodate it. (Close to identical to the IH unit.) The brackets - available in painted or chrome - came from Dennis Carpenter Restorations, but other companies (Bob Drake, NPD, LMC, etc.) offer them as well. Once the brackets and visors were installed and I began driving the truck, it soon became very annoying that the visors would rotate out away from the header panel on acceleration. I know I put a lot of ponies under the hood, but this was a little much to keep pushing the visors back toward the header. I tried removing them and tightening them by striking the bracket shaft on the back side with a sharp punch to add additional resistance to turning. That didn't help. More research. Other trucks (& cars) have visors with metal or plastic rods that extend out the free side of the visor and are contained in little brackets above the rear view mirror. More research, and I ordered from LMC, some metal rods and a bracket to convert the visors I had to retain the visor in place. When I received them, I saw that Dennis Carpenter had made the little plastic bracket and the metal rods are foreign. (I know they were available from other sources, but ended up ordering them from LMC.) Since my visors don't extend all the way to the center of the header panel, I needed to order a second retainer bracket. Those brackets come only in black, but I'm considering painting them with some rattle can paint made for plastic to make them match a little closer to the interior color.
You guys like photos, so you can see what I did in them. The one photo shows the LMC part numbers for the plastic retainer and the metal rods.
As a side note, for those who notice the wire running from the mirror up under the header panel, the rear view mirror came from J.C. Whitney and has a digital read-out for compass and temperature.
I hope this info is helpful.
I began by looking around for what would adapt or could be scavenged from other more readily available brands of vehicles. (Funny how, in this hobby, when you need something you start observing that object anywhere you encounter it.) Not only did I need the visor, but the bracket that mounts to the windshield header panel. My observations and research brought me to the brackets and visors for the '48 - '52 Ford pick-up. Turns out the bracket mounting holes match the IH header panel and the internal spring doesn't need a hole bored in the header panel to accommodate it. (Close to identical to the IH unit.) The brackets - available in painted or chrome - came from Dennis Carpenter Restorations, but other companies (Bob Drake, NPD, LMC, etc.) offer them as well. Once the brackets and visors were installed and I began driving the truck, it soon became very annoying that the visors would rotate out away from the header panel on acceleration. I know I put a lot of ponies under the hood, but this was a little much to keep pushing the visors back toward the header. I tried removing them and tightening them by striking the bracket shaft on the back side with a sharp punch to add additional resistance to turning. That didn't help. More research. Other trucks (& cars) have visors with metal or plastic rods that extend out the free side of the visor and are contained in little brackets above the rear view mirror. More research, and I ordered from LMC, some metal rods and a bracket to convert the visors I had to retain the visor in place. When I received them, I saw that Dennis Carpenter had made the little plastic bracket and the metal rods are foreign. (I know they were available from other sources, but ended up ordering them from LMC.) Since my visors don't extend all the way to the center of the header panel, I needed to order a second retainer bracket. Those brackets come only in black, but I'm considering painting them with some rattle can paint made for plastic to make them match a little closer to the interior color.
You guys like photos, so you can see what I did in them. The one photo shows the LMC part numbers for the plastic retainer and the metal rods.
As a side note, for those who notice the wire running from the mirror up under the header panel, the rear view mirror came from J.C. Whitney and has a digital read-out for compass and temperature.
I hope this info is helpful.