How to Make a Sunvisor Cover

Keep your interior looking great by making a sun visor cover.

If you want to add some flair to a vehicle or restore a classic car, making a cover for a sun visor is a project you can do at home. In just a few steps, you will be able to remove the old material of the visor and replace it with a new fabric of your choice. Create a sun visor cover that matches the interior of the rest of the car or create a new look by introducing a new color or pattern.

Things You'll Need

• Vehicle's service manual
• Seam ripper
• Fabric
• Chalk
• Scissors
• Closed-cell foam
• Contact cement adhesive
• Needle
• Thread

Instructions

1. Detach the sun visor from your vehicle. Because each vehicle will have connected the visor differently, check your vehicle's service manual for directions on removing it.

2. Remove the outer material of the visor by using a seam ripper to undo the stitching along the edges. Take off any extra foam padding attached to the cardboard base. Ensure that you do not damage the cardboard interior of the visor.

3. Open the interior cardboard material like a butterfly to reveal two attached cardboard flaps. Place the open casing on the back side of the new material you want to cover the visor with. Trace along the cardboard's perimeter with a piece of chalk. Draw a 1-inch border all around this shape to account for seam allowance. Cut out along the outermost sketched line.

4. Place the open cardboard pieces on a piece of 1/4-inch, closed-cell foam. Trace the cardboard's shape onto the material. Cut out the foam along the sketched lines with scissors.

5. Line the outside of the open cardboard piece with contact cement adhesive. Place the foam cutout directly on top of the cardboard piece, ensuring that the edges are even and lined up.

6. Apply the contact cement adhesive to the surface of the foam. Place the foam on the back side of the cutout fabric material. Again, ensure that it is centered and the edges are lined up properly. You will now have layered the fabric, foam and cardboard.

7. Place a line of contact cement adhesive around the overhanging border of the fabric, which should extend 1 inch around the cardboard and foam. Fold the fabric over the cardboard and foam and press it in place.

8. Fold the cardboard pieces back together. Sew a 3/8-inch seam along the three open sides of the cardboard, moving the needle through the fabric, foam and cardboard inside.

9. Reattach the sun visor to the vehicle, following the manufacturer's directions.

References

• "Custom Auto Interiors", Making Sunvisors; Don Taylor, et al.; 1998
• WLS Headliners; Recovering Automobile Sunvisors by Replacing the Material; 2004