ADDED 9/28/13:
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT MY LATEST SOLUTION TO THE DRIVER'S SIDE SUNVISOR EXTENSION IN POST #11!

From the day I bought my Mini I noticed the driver’s side door sun visor wasn’t long enough to block the sun from the side of my face. I’m 6’2” and probably drive with the seat back further than most. The sun visor that flips down over the top of the driver’s door window is 6.5” too short to make it all the way to the door jam (What’s up with that Mini?). I thought adding window tint would solve my problem; no luck. Although it helped, it doesn’t block enough sun at all. Today I ventured into solving my year and a half old problem…

First I cut out a paper pattern of the sun visor with a matching 6.5” extend. Then I taped it to the visor and tried the fit. The lower edge hit the headliner when you flip it down, but I noticed it didn’t need to be as wide as the actual OEM sun visor to give full blockage because part of the visor is covering the headliner before the window. So I cut the 19.75” long paper pattern down to only 3.75” wide and tried it again. Clearance was fine and blockage complete.





Next I cut a pattern out of a piece of 1/8” thick black poster board I had sitting around and taped that to the sun visor to test it out in real life. It works great, but looks like a piece of black poster board taped to the visor, because that is all it is.





Now I need to find something cheap made of thin matching tan color plastic that can be cut and installed with strong double sided tape to look nice, while performing its’ duty. It seems best to use something thin attached to the outward side of the visor when it’s folded up, because the visor sits in an indent in the headliner, so the extension piece has to extend out from the surface to not conflict with the headliner.

Any suggestions for material to make the final product out of?

I’m thinking something like a Wally World tan plastic waste basket or trash can might work.

PS: Sure would be nice if Mini made a longer visor or factory Mini clip-on extension. I know I’d buy that upgrade!

 

Here are a couple products that might be able to be adapted:[/SIZE]

VisorMates

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-TWO-PACK-Sun-Visor-extension-for-car-or-truck-/280495217706?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item414ed15c2a#ht_516wt_1081

(Don't know why that eBay link is listing funky?)

Woke up in the middle of the night. My subconscious may have solved my material dilemma, VERTICAL BLINDS!



The ones pictured above in my office are light tan on one side and artificial tweed on the other. The textured light tan is on the concaved side so it will be what shows when folded up. The tweed side can be left as is or easily painted light tan. These vertical blinds measure 3.5” wide and already have a slight bend in them.

I have some extra pieces of the same vertical blinds laying around somewhere. Will cut one up and post the results soon…

 

Haha! This is great! Tinting the windows help too

 

Tinting didn't help much.

I'm toying with cuting a slit in the edge of the visor to slide the vertical blind inside, but haven't been able to make the cut on a perfectly good visor to see what's inside...

Homemade pullout visor

 

Made a little more progress today. Went to Home Depot to get some quality double sided tape that will hold well. Found Scotch 5lb. Indoor/Outdoor UV Resistant Clear Mounting Tape (Scotch also makes a black 20lb. which might be great for exterior emblems).

While I was there I checked the vertical blinds they carry for a color match and found Bali Today Alabaster that is a very close match. Both sides are Alabaster, so no painting will be needed.

I was hoping to find a scrap piece from when they cut to size for the customer, but no one purchased the Alabaster today. The cute HD girls in the interior department were at their spring time best and offered to call me when they cut the next set of Alabaster, that way they'd just give me the cut-offs for free. Cool!

Another cutie showed up to assist as well and found a mis-cut hanging in the back of the Alabaster row they were saving for the next customer that needed a short set. I offered them $5 for the mis-cut (9 pieces 44" long - so I can make 9 sets for R&L lateral sun visors) to get my project done today and she said sure.

So the two cuties got $5 bucks out of me and my phone number. Hmmm... Those girls might have played me. It must have been the Porsche T-shirt I was wearing...

Anyway, here's the works to make it all happen for a whopping $10! Only $5 if you can find some free HD cut-offs. And free if you already have the double sided tape.



Now I just have to find the time to cut a pair out and pick up another lateral sun visor to replace the grab bar on the passenger side.

 

Cut two semetrical vertical blind visor extensions out at the same time by taping two pieces of blind together and cutting along the trace lines from the black pattern.



Cleaned the visor thuroughly, then marked the edge of the cut out blind position with scotch tape and installed 3 rows of the 5lb clear double sided mounting tape.



Aligned the cut out piece and set it in place. BE SURE YOU HAVE THE CUT OUT WHERE YOU WANT IT, BECAUSE ONCE IT IS ON THE TAPE IT AIN'T MOVING!



In the up position installed back in the Mini.



In the down position blocking out everything from the lower edge of the lateral visor to the door post.



I be trying it out this afternoon when the sun starts to set and will let you know how it works out. So far it looks like it will do the trick wonderfully.

 

Test proven on Pacific Coast Highway in the setting sun of beautiful SoCal.

Works like a charm.

PS: If you don't want to tape it on you can use simple squeeze clips that are common on all the stuff made to clip on sun visors. No fuss, no mess and removeable...

 

Great idea

 

Great idea, but looks guetto rigged...
I need to find a better solution.

 

OH NO! Elin went all getto on my Mini!!

Newport Coast getto...

 

The vertical blind side visor extension has served me well for several months, but over time even the cupped vertical blind fell victim to gravity and heat. It is now sagging to the point of touching my head, so a new solution is in order. I found this BELL Visor Super Shield at Peeper Boys for about $5.50 thinking it can be modified to do the trick.



It looked like two of them would be long enough to meet the need by aligning the left swivel point with the right of another; giving a nice overlap to join the two together. I bought another one, removed the two clips (they just snap off) and cut out the swivel pivot so the two tinted visors would mate together well with clear double-sided 5lb. Mounting Tape.



It worked great and gives a 20" length visor. I then cut off the visor swivel piece from one of the removed clips to use as a third independent clip to hold the lower portion of the extended visor in place.



Here it is in the up position. Neat, clean and removable.



And here it is in the down position. It gives even more coverage than the original vertical blind shade that is still in place for comparison.



This beter looking removable side visor extension is much more eye pleasing and works very well to block the sun in that anoying gap between the rear end of the side visor and the door jam.

No more "getto" extension!

 

Wow that's a lot of work, money and time!
I went to amazon and bought a pair of Visormates for $17.99 and installed in 2 minutes.
they even had them in 3 colors.

 

No work other than taping the two together. How do you hold the two visormates together? Spit and chewing gum?

Got a picture of your install?

 

BlackIce, I haven't run into that issue yet just having my MCS for over a month. Looking at your designs, I was thinking you should take your whole setup as it is right now off the mount and use that as the template for a new one piece design. The tricky part will be to replicate the protruding legs to fit onto the mounts on the roof line.

In the end you will not be using the factory visor, but instead replacing it with your fabricated visor.

 

I agree. The best solution would be to cut a slit in the end and slide in a curved piece of firm material along the inside edge of the OEM visor (interior side when folded up into place and not in use), so that the extension does not interfere with the headliner. Then have the whole visor reupholstered in matching material or leather. The extension would only be as thick as the slide in material plus the upholstery, thus still fold up tight to the headliner.

I have a childhood friend that owns an upholstery shop. I may approach him with my idea to see what he thinks. If I have him modify it in the futrure I will pick up another one for the passenger side and have them both done at the same time so I have a matching pair.

For now, the cheap smoked plastic clip-on is working well, but certainly not the optimal solution. I wish Mini would make an improved factory replacement for their customers to buy for right and left hand drives. That would be ideal!

 

here are the pics that Visormates.com sent me for my driver door sun visor extender. Works great!