... and Crown Vics Were There!

Today, John W. Hinckley Jr, the man who shot President Reagan in 1981, is back in the news thanks to a judge allowing him to live outside a mental institution.  As usual, the press is digging into files for photos of him.  One that keeps popping up shows him in 2003, and yes, a CROWN VIC WAS THERE!

(Brian Smialowski/Reuters 2003)

Floppy Sun Visor FIXED!!

Vic 2.0 is feeling a little happier now.  Last week I FINALLY just said "EH!" and went out to the driveway in the summer heat and cleaned the inside real good.  This included cleaning all the coffee off the cupholder.

The other day the windshield was replaced due to a small stone chip that grew into a bonafide crack. 

The next day, I installed my brand spankin' new sunvisor and retainer!

Since I help out at a local auto upholstery shop, I knew that it is easy to make a visor install a little confusing.  That comes from moving the pivot around too much.  All I needed was a 20mm torx and a small ratchet.  The only part of the install that was a hassle was the retainer hook.  For some reason, the locator pin on the back was in a totally different location.  I couldn't get it to push through the headliner, so I just broke it off.

I can now drive safely, free from blinding sun and a broken visor that wanted to make me drive off the road!

Double sided Velcro was all I had to keep the broken visor up after the retainer hook broke

The broken retainer clip, broken in a fit of anger by myself...

Part # for Medium Stone Gray retainer

Part # for the visor

The original part is on the left, note the different locator pin on the new part at right

Torx and ratchet

This is what the mounting location looks like

You can see how moving the pivot around too much can confuse installation for a short time

ALL DONE!  YAY!

Floppy Sun Visor...

Recently, Vic 2.0’s driver side sun visor started to bind up.  It felt like something wanted to break.  Sure enough, one day the visor flopped down and stayed there.  What resulted was various tests of materials wrapped around the visor retainer to keep it in the up position.  Tissues, Dunkin Donuts napkin, thin rubber sheet, and finally Velcro attached to itself.

Ebay searches didn’t turn up any used visors in the correct color of Medium Stone (or what appears to be that color!).  I ended up buying one that LOOKED correct, and the seller seemed to also think it was the right color, but once it arrived, it turned out to be too beige.   It didn’t cost much… will probably just relist…

First attempt to stop the flop... didn't work...

Anyhoo, yesterday things came to a head.  The visor kept flopping down at all the wrong times, causing me to drive over the white AND yellow lines so often I gave up and we now have a visor on order with a Ford dealer.  Oh, and in my anger, I accidentally broke the retainer hook that mounts to the headliner.  So that got ordered as well.  The parts guy told me there was “only 3 in the country”, though I don’t know if he meant the visor or the retainer.

Hopefully when the parts arrive, they will indeed be the correct color.  I gave the code to the parts guy, so we shall see what I actually end up with…