jinsenser

Has anybody devised a quick and dirty (or slow and elegant) DIY solution for the sunvisor breaking problem? (a search does not show any thread with "sunvisor" and "DIY" together, and I have found anything in any sunvisor thread I have read).

Mine is broken but still attached, and I believe that a little reinforcing riveting would do the trick. Once I get mine replaced, I will try to repair the broken one...

PS: an aircraft is a large set of rivets held together buy some alluminum. (this is not a joke: if you remove all but the rivets in a CAD/CAM drawing of an aircraft, you get a dense mass of rivets that looks much more solid than the wire-frame view. OK, OK, it IS a joke..)

BunnyGirl

I believe eyeballfixer said he drilled some holes in his and used zip ties. Mine's broken but still attached also. Since I see all the wiring attached I didn't want to try and take if off myself and mess up something.

CosmosMpower

I just took mine out that night until I got it replaced the following morning. It's 2 screws and you unclip the harness for the lights once you pull it out a bit. Mine kept hitting me in the face and wouldn't stay up.

jinsenser

Thanks. I'll keep the forum posted...

PS: BunnyGirl, your sunvisor is big!

Kewl

So jinsenser are you saying then that the new composite airplanes weight less because they don't have all those damn rivets? Interesting approach, I had not considered that.

Socr8tes

Gee, it's a good thing stress stays constant around all those rivet holes then...

jinsenser

He, he, I knew somebody would mention composites... But you need to join the parts together. Glue and co-curing? Nah, I don't trust them. I'd rather go for the good old heavy rivets...

jinsenser

I don't know how it translates to english, but back in the 70's, when the fatigue-induced crashes of the first DH Comet jet airliners were a not so distant memory, I heard the joke on engineers putting lots of holes in air structures. When asked why, the answer was "because, like toilet paper, it never breaks at the holes"

scsi

i was thinkin of sealing it with superglue.. :p

i think though that everyone should email Mazda and tell em to redesign the sunvisor. i did so, and included a link to the 11 page thread in the other section

Aseras

yeah i've fixed mine. it's the heat welds that hold everything together. trim the pladtic rings that hold the arms out, fill the holes the pegs go into around the arm FULL of superglue put it back together put some weight on it and leave it all night. it will never split again.

i have pics I'll post them.

DemonRX-8

I glued mine with some super glue about two months ago. It looks like it's starting to split a little bit at the seam again, but it's still holding well. If it gives again I may try Aseras trick. Pics would be helpful, btw.

whenson417

Funny, mine broke earlier this week and just a afterward I see this thread popped up. I took mine to the local dealer and had them warranty it. I still have about 3k miles left before warranty goes out so it all better break now or forever hold its pieces.

Aseras

This is your visor



these are what break and allow the metal lock to spin and thus break/split your visor. Fill those holes with superglue almost to the top, put it somewhere you can leave it for a while that is level. superglue just the edges of the hole around the rest of the visor and put the side with the pegs into the side with the holes. Put 10-15lbs of weight on it ( enough to make the seam close all the way around tightly ) and leave it for at least 2-3 hours. the superglue should eat and the plastic some, and bond along the entire shaft rather than just the edge and hold it really well.

Aseras

I'm on visor number 4.. I've got 1k left on my warranty. don't bet on it.

alamike

I just had my second visor pop open this summer. I hope some one sells a redesigned replacement before my warranty runs out. If they don't, I will not use the visor after the warranty runs out.

corners

Why not use 5 minute epoxy instead of superglue? It's not so messy and it doesn't eat plastic. It also fills voids better and is stronger.

Aseras

eating the plastic is good, gets a better bond. the only reason for filling the holes is that you get superglue ALL along the entires walls of the hole/peg. the visor are cracking because only the edge is melted together, and it's easy to split it. ( when yuo take a sunvisor apart you will notice this quite readily. when the plastic get's hot, it get softer and mroe pliable to the point that the welds fail and it splits. the superglue won't fail because of this.