kerryismygirl89

Has anyone ever recovered their sun shades?

When I purchased my newly covered headliner, visor & sail panel kit, there was a bunch of extra material that came with it. My sun shades are in very shabby condition. I wanted to recover them with this material.

I want them to look as close to the factory ones as I can get them. So, I want to keep the stitching 'stock' looking. And, I also want to keep that piece of fabric trim (that looks like ribbon) on the edge of the sun shade. If anyone's ever done this, have you sewn them on a sewing machine?

Also, the black part of the sun shade (not the fabric part) is scratched and you can see where the black has peeled off and it's showing the 'cardboard'. Can I just spray paint this black?

Wish I had a picture to post here, but I don't.

Thank you for reading and thank you for any replies.

therckid

yeah d00d i'm doing mine as we speak. I'll show the steps on my thread
https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=193865 i've only got pics on there of the headliner now but when i'm done with these i'll post then new ones. alright d00d.

kerryismygirl89

Ok, thanks. I already saw your thread where you recovered the headliner with fur. I assume the sunshades will be done in a similar manner... very fuzzy!

therckid

alright d00d here were the steps for mine

step one: cut the fabirc to shape.



step two: Fold bottom part onto the old one.



step three: fold the top without putting it on the board yet so it has a nice end to cover the other with.



step four: fold the top part over the board so as to barely cover the other one so not to be obvious you did so.



step five: sow it together. I wills how the pattern. In the middle just connect the two peices of cloth. and on the ends just sow strait down. but before that fold the end so it looks neat.





hope this helps ya d00d. goto my post and you can see how the whole thing looks in the car now, it doesn't have the sun visors in yet but it will soon enough.

kerryismygirl89

These are visors, right, kidrcth? I'm sorry for the confusion - I was posting about t-top sun shades - those almost rectangular pieces that fit underneath the t-tops to block out the sun.

Thanks.

therckid

these are those thing that are used to block the sun light, yes. I guess the word visor isn't right, so what are they called then? i just took apart the sun shade thingy and the black bracket is still on the car.


the part showing in the pic is the part agaist the roof while up. You cant notice the seams while their up becuase their ont he other side. but uh they did fine for me

kerryismygirl89

No, kidrcth, the things you have (and posted pictures of) are visors. But, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about these things:

hrddrv

I want to do custom one. Made from some type of cardboard or plastic and cover them in leather I think. Has anyone done this?

therckid

wth, what year car do you have man. I have a 1986 Trans Am and i have nothing of that sort(or mine jsut look different). Mine are those things that go in front of the tops, and you can pull them down to the front of you or to the side of you(direction depends on which side of the car you are on). Mine may look a big different do to the fact that i previously recovered them but my techinique was un sucessful. ok hers a good one on the stock one it used to have intructions for starting the car or some ****. does yours

therckid

oh **** never mind i know what those are now. Mine flew out when a kid on a highway walkway dropped bricks on my car. The police never found the little ideot so i never got my money so i couldn't afford to get more of them.. nm d00d but it should be too hard to cover that thing.

kerryismygirl89

kidrcth, we are talking about two different things. What you are talking about are called 'visors' and you can flip them down to block the sun from hitting your eyes. Or you can turn them to block the sun from coming in your side window. I have them in my car.

T-topped cars had an option to have sun shades included (RPO DE4). These are rectangular pieces of cardboard that are covered one one side with fabric to match the headliner. They slide in underneath your t-tops to block the sun from coming in over your head. They are the things in the picture I posted. I just measured mine and they are about 17" x 26".

I don't know if you have sunshades or not.


Oh, btw, I have a 1989 Firebird.

kerryismygirl89

It's all good.

therckid

do those things stop you from getting hot in the car on sunny days better? i might need some ya know since i live in northern florida.

therckid

yeah d00d since i was just at walmart today looking at the fabric stuff you might be able to get some there for that. not fur, its like $7.86 per/yard. they have that kinda stuff for $2 per/yard in their on sale stack. I couldn't find anything so my sis says hey fur would look really cool so i went and bought the stuff and it looks great.

87WS6

iTrader: (1)

I have some in my car. They are absolutely necessary if you live some place hot. It's also nice because they block the glare. They are easy to put in and take out. The only problem with them is after a few years the fabric hangs down like it does on the headliner.

My car came with them and even though the fabric is comming off of them I still use them. I thought about recovering them. But I may buy more off of Hawks or something.

kerryismygirl89

They definitely block out the sun. And in Jersey, we're having a hot summer (as we tend to have). Also, I'm installing new seat covers, so I want to keep them in to prevent any fading to the seats.

The ones I have that came with the car have the fabric drooping worse than my original headliner ever was... just like you mentioned, 87WS6.

If I can recover them, I'd like to give it a try because I have the fabric already and if I can save the $$, that'd be great. If it turns out not to work, I'll pick them up at Hawks as well.

therckid

yeah d00d the only thing you need to do then is get whats called spray adhesive. I got this $4 DURO stuff at walmart and as long as you follow the directions and your using a collotn based material it will hold for all eternity. What you do is spray it on and wait a minute and then put it on. but once its on i will pull on it and it wont come un done. Pretty cool shizz. Can you make them things out of a box or something? i mean they're only cardboard right?

kerryismygirl89

I could just spray the fabric on the one side, but I want to keep it original looking. So, I want to stitch the fabric/ribbon/trim around the edge if I can.

hrddrv

You should be able to. I am thinking of using some type of plastic like what you can use to make custom doors. Mine are sagging and one of them is broke in half and the cloth is the only thing holding them together.

kerryismygirl89

Whoops, posted that too early...

Also, I guess you could cut a piece of cardboard the right size, but probably not box cardboard. It's like.... I think it's like the headliner board cardboard.

therckid

well sdo that but in the middle ya know spray glue it so the middle will stay on itstead of fall, and then just use a sowing machine on the other edge of it.

Zrated83

iTrader: (17)

How are the sunshades held in place. I live down in Fresno and it gets really hot over here so I want to make some sunshades. I will probably use some type of cardboard and cover it in the fabric I used for my headliner.

Mike

kerryismygirl89

The sun shades just 'fit' underneath the t-tops. They are held between the t-top centre bar and the plastic part of the t-top itself. But, in addition to that, to avoid any shifting, the factory ones came with two small pieces of velcro on the the sun shade that would velcro to the t-top.

therckid

hey i got a great idea tio make some of them, get floor mats on a peice of thick cardboard and use it that way that would perfectly match the interior and its how 4th gen ones feel too. unless you got carpet

Jose'sRedTA

hey kidrcth...dude where in north florida do you live...cause I live in Pensacola...You sound just like a guy I knew named Greg...anyways nice job on the headliner...keep it real dude!

therckid

nah man i pass through Pensacola atleast 3 times a year but i live in jacksonville and my names Shane. Thanks all you guys who actually likes my headliner, lots say they didn't. But uh yeah keep it real too.

Midland_GTA

Why wouldn't you use box cardboard? I just did that and didn't see any problems.

I need to block the sun while I drive back to Reno. I'll figure out a better solution later.

thanks

kerryismygirl89

::shrugs:: I don't know, I guess you could. I was thinking about not using corrugated cardboard, though. Guess you could use anything that will work.

Neil

I am in the process of making T-top shades and I am using 3/16" thick foam board that I bought at Hobby Lobby. Though I think 3/16" might be too thick, after a few more cuts here and there I will know if it will work or not.

For those of you who have factory shades, how thick are they?

I think the foam board is good, I don't know how it will hold up in the Houston heat, but it is very light and strong.

profiveo

Let us know how it works out for you Neil. I also plan on making some shades.

Neil

Ok, it seems that the foam board works very well! The only thing I don't really like is, to put the shades in or to remove them the T-tops must be removed. I cut the foam boards large enough so that all visible light is blocked from the t-tops, thus the only way to get them in is to remove the t-tops.

All I need to do now is to cover the interior side of the boards with headliner material and put a few velcro strips on the glass to hold it in place. Since I have a black interior, I will only cover the interior side and leave the other side uncovered since it is white.

FYI, the boards cost approx. $2.50, each.