Nordland visor need ideas

[beetleman217]

I have an original Nordland visor that is missing a piece. I've been trying to think of the right material to fill in that space. I've searched in different stores for a suitable material with no success.

The visor also has some cracks so perhaps at some point I'd try to replace the entire plexiglass, although I think finding a shop that can do that would be just as difficult as fixing the broken piece.

Please help. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

_________________
If all else fails, stop using all else

1977 Westfalia
1961 Beetle

[hitest]

Try visiting your local boat restoration shops. There's a shop here in Nampa, ID that can heat and bend Plexiglas to reform windshields for the old boats of the 50s-60s.
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[beetleman217]

Thanks, but I was sort of hoping to fix it by myself using commonly available materials. I ran into this material from which a key binder is made of. It is some sort of flexible rubber/plastic material that is also translucent. But I have no idea what this material is called, or where to get it in stock form. Any help?

_________________
If all else fails, stop using all else

1977 Westfalia
1961 Beetle

[Mike Fisher]

If it's fiberglass you can repair it. Take a mold off it and build a whole new one out of fiberglass or something.
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[baja 74]

Would a piece of one of those sunroof wind spoilers or even a vent visor type plastic work, or would it need to be more flexible?

[beetleman217]

Mike- At this point I would only like to fill in the missing piece, not replace the entire visor.

Baja 74- No, the material has to have some flexibility to be glued in place. That's why the material I pictured is perfect, I just don't know its type or where to find it.
_________________
If all else fails, stop using all else

1977 Westfalia
1961 Beetle

[baja 74]

If it was mine, I would make a form from some scrap sheet metal in the curve needed, find some tinted plastic as mentioned above and slowly heat it until it followed the contour of the sheet metal. Then I would trace the break in card stock, cut it out, trace it on the curved plastic, cut that out, fine tune with sand paper and glue 'er in! Worth a try if you can't find anything better. Good luck!

[volksartist]

Baha 64 has a great solution.

If the plastic is hard like acrylic (plexipglass) then methylene chloride will
bond the two like a butt weld. Then polish out the plastic. Problem is the colour! But if you are going that far then a whole piece may be the same work. You can buy colored acrylic from sign supply for channel letters.
Another option is clear lexan/acrylic with translucent vinyl applied if no colour match is available.

[restojohnny]

That's pretty impossible to get the correct color on that but if it were my visor broken like that I would make a clean cut past the cracked area then do the exact cut on the opposite corner and put some cool aluminum or metal or mesh on each end to give it a one off look that no other nordland visor owner has I think that would nice.
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[volksartist]

Translucent purple #2287 is close, about 1/8" thick:

http://www.geminisignletters.com/05colors.htm

[beetleman217]

Using Volksartist advice I tried obtaining the material from geminisignletters and other sign makers, but no one would sell me just the material. In fact those people weren't too nice as soon as they realized what I needed was of no financial value to them.

So I searched and searched until I figured that TPU is what I needed. That's the stuff those common tablet covers are made of. They even come in various colors. And I don't even have an Ipad!

Just a reminder - this is what I started with

The Ipad Mini cover (victim) - ordered online dirt cheap. It is somewhat flexible, and I just cut it with sharp scissors.

As this material is thinner than the stock plexiglass, I decided to build the missing piece using 4 layers. This is the bottom (or back) piece that I made oversize to serve as the foundation.

An easy material to work with. Not shown is the paper template I made for cutting these accurately.

Piece by piece, with patience

The result. Not too shabby for a hack. This will match the look of my '55 perfectly. Soon to follow pics of it installed.

_________________
If all else fails, stop using all else

1977 Westfalia
1961 Beetle

[beetleman217]

Installed finally

_________________
If all else fails, stop using all else

1977 Westfalia
1961 Beetle

[coad]

Nice job, but I think you better cover the whole area around the patch with some mylar to keep it from vibrating apart when you're driving it.

[beetleman217]

[baja 74]

Nice job on the visor! Cool car!

[beetleman217]