[DeTomaso] Viagra for sun visors?

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/21/07 2:43:48 AM, charlesmccall at gmail.com writes:


> 
> Only the drivers side has this problem, of course. Tighten up the screws
> that hold the pin? Remove and apply some sort of thick grease? Any ideas?
> 

The pin is pressed into the plastic housing; the screw in the visor provides 
friction.   The visor is supposed to pivot on the pin, while the pin remains 
fixed.

You can, of course, try tightening the screw.   Don't go overboard, or you 
will tweak the visor.   What is *probably* happening is that your pins have come 
adrift, and are spinning in the plastic housing.   Thus, all the 
screw-tightening in the world won't make them work properly.   If this is the case, you 
can *carefully* remove the pin from the housing and then epoxy it back into 
place.   This presumes the housing hasn't actually broken, but these things 
age-harden and can crack and fall apart.   Although my Pantera visor pin housing are 
fine (17 years spent in the darkness of a garage does wonders for extending 
the longevity of such parts!), the ones in my daily driver Sciroccos are 
brittle to the extreme.   

I got to watch one literally explode awhile back.   It was an awesome sight.  
 I was giving a ride to Chris Difani; he raised his massive hand to reach for 
the visor, and I thought it was a sudden, unannounced solar eclipse.   He 
wrapped his hand around his visor and yanked on it, trying to reposition it, not 
realizing that it was fixed in place (that is, due to the failure of the 
original-style inner clip, replaced with a fixed clip, it now works like a Pantera 
visor, pivoting but not disconnecting to swing around to the side).   Well, 
the plastic was no match for that awesome force, and soon there was a mighty 
crack and a shower of white plastic bits on my face.

My visor once again pivots now. :>)

So anyway, hopefully you can fix your visor mounts, presuming that the cause 
is the pins coming loose and not simply an adjustment issue.   If your mounts 
are totally shot, the good news is that Hall Pantera years ago tooled up to 
replicate these things in billet aluminum with steel pins.   That's a lifetime 
fix.   They don't look quite the same (the stock ones are rounded and 'soft' 
looking, to preclude injury in an accident, while the Hall ones are squared-off 
and sharp, presumably to teach you a lesson for smashing up your Pantera), are 
available in a variety of colors (but not the stock cream color), and 
reportedly work great!

Mike


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