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A thin bar runs across the top of the front windoow, and curves around to the left to cover most of the driver's side window. The visor is suspended from it an can be placed in any spot, any angle, and perhaps fold to reduce it's size.
Another visor suggestion
http://www.halfbake...flection_20Dampener A bit more sophisticated but, well, more unlikely, too. [bristolz, Feb 13 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]
Irvin Automotive
http://www.halfbake...irvinautomotive.com These guys do sunvisors. [RayfordSteele, Feb 13 2002]
Irvin Automotive
http://www.irvinautomotive.com These guys do sunvisors. [RayfordSteele, Oct 04 2004]
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if we could get morg to whisper, this might be rather nice....croiss ; sssshhhhhh! |
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Any chance you're using AOL [MORGWOOD]? |
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Friends, Halfbakers, Countrymen, lend me your ears. Or your eyes. Or something. For you have met your very first sunvisor engineer. (okay, _former_ sunvisor engineer). |
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If you truly _DO_ come up with a sunvisor idea that you think is workable, submit it to the link above. Maybe they'll go somewhere with it. |
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We'd try all sorts of screwy ideas in proposals. Visors that pulled out instead of flipped down, visors that had weird extensions, etc. Trouble is, safety and cost. Sunvisors and roll-over curtains don't get along too well. When the curtain inflates, the sunvisor best be not in the way, 'cause it'll give you a nasty headache. |
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The next problem is packaging. Getting everything to fit into that space where it needs to be is really quite a feat. |
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The last trick is interior safety specifications. There are crash safety regulations about the 'softness' of exposed materials in an accident situation that would prohibit metal tracks. We call it the 'Head Impact Crashworthiness' spec, or HIC for short. And of course the European and American specs are different in how they're carried out, so it gets tricky. |
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OEM's only want to pay about 4-10 bucks for a sunvisor typically per part, plus tooling. The primary reason those blade extenders aren't more common? Tooling costs. Tooling for the plastic clamshell that makes up the visor is typically about $300,000 US and a real pain to tool and develop, whereas if you do foam or cardboard it's alot cheaper. Trouble is, your choices for inclusion of features is more limited with the cheaper ones. Hard to make a business case for smaller vehicle runs. |
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But they love to hear new fresh ideas. Engineering manager's name: Rick Bogdanski. |
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Actually now that I think about it, an equivalent to this is sortof baked. Check out the visors on a '97-'00 Chrysler minivan. There are also visor kits for RV's on the web that have several degrees of freedom to pivot in any which direction. (apostrophe police, help me out, does an acronym get an apostrophe when it's plural?)
This might work in an after-market scenario of some sort. |
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Pheonix, what makes you think I'm on AOL? |
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Anyway, I recently remembered an item I saw in an Avaition catalog. An opaque suction cup you stick onto the window to block the sun. Pretty, cheap. |
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MORGWOOD, because there's this unwritten connection between people using all-caps alot, and internet-newbies, who often happen to use AOL. |
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My '94 Taurus (yes, I'm due for a new car soon!) has two driver's side and two passenger's side visors. The main visor can either be flipped over the windshield or flipped over the side window. The second visor only flips over the windshield (and only if you move the main visor out of the way by putting it over the side window -- but you can return the main visor to the undeployed position after deploying the secondary visor). The secondary visor is smaller than the primary one, but it has a slide-out extension to make up the width. |
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Since I'm 6'1" (185cm), my head is usually close enough to the roof of the car that the main visor obscures too much of my vision, so I move the main visor out of the way, fold the seconday visor out, and put the main visor back (unless I need it for the side window). |
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This was baked perhaps by Volvo. All their cars used to come with a tinted strip round the top of the windows aimed at cutting down glare from the sun. |
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*All* U.S. cars come with the tinting at the top of the windshield. Still waiting for the variable-opaqueness version. |
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The tint at the top of the windshield is annoying to me, because I'm 4'27" and the edge of that is right in my line of vision...Fortunately, my old Japanese car doesn't have it... |
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I am actually part of a team at the University of Maryland which is in the process of redesigning the car visor for quality purposes. We have looked at most of the stuff on this page. I am interested in costing of materials as well as safety specs...if anyone can give me a good website or other sourse of information i would greately appreciate it |
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Mr Assault's website is a lot of fun. |
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They have electrochromic mirrors currently for auto dimming. I'm pretty sure the same tech will be looked at to replace the visor. No moving parts, infinite adjustability, and pretty cheap too boot, except for the replacement market. |
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