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Extendable sun shades

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Accessories & Modifications' started by TonyPSchaefer, Feb 25, 2008.

  1. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    My wife drives a Buick Regal. Every time she fills it up with gas and calculates 21 - 24 MPG, she swears that she's going to downsize. So far she hasn't found a car that she truly likes though she thinks the ForTwo is cute and sort of likes the look of the hatchback Yaris and Fit. So you see, when she says "downsize" she means it. And there's no hurry since the Regal is paid off and there's no use dumping a car that works perfectly well (if 23MPG can be considered 'perfectly well', that is).

    I, of course, keep telling her that a 4-seater, hatchback, everyday car already exists that achieves better mileage and lower emissions than any of the cars she's currently interested in: our own dear Prius.

    Here's the primary sticking point. She hates the sun shades. She refers to them as "paper clips" because she says they block as much sun as do actual paper clips. And I have to admit that there's some truth to that. The sun always seems to be between the shade and the door bar. The Regal, on the other hand, has a pull-out shade extender. It slides out like a pocket door and extends the reach of the shade to ensure that the sun doesn't peak through. She says that she would strongly consider a Prius if the sun shade extended like the Regal.

    HERE'S THE CATCH (and how I'll know if you actually read this entire post):
    After-market gizmos, like those add-on shade extenders that strap to the visor and slide out, will not do. It has to be a clean installation, preferably very close to OEM. I remember some discussion a few years back about removing the Prius visor and bolting a Camry or Avalon visor in its place. Has anyone tried this? Did it work? Are there pictures?
     
    #1 TonyPSchaefer, Feb 25, 2008
  2. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    omg. It wasn't until the last paragraph until I realised you were talking about extendable sun visors lol.

    She won't like the fortwo then. Its sun visors are paperclip ones too and the side window is HUGE, rendering the sunvisor practically useless. I know, I've tried. My head was nowhere near the sunvisor so I'll have to contend with having half my face burn in the sun.

    As far as clean aftermarket sun visor extensions, I haven't seen any. All I can think of is a custom one that acts like a rear side sunshade except it's for the front window. That of course requires cutting a slit in the door panels and finding a way to mount clips near the top of the door frame to hold the sunshade when fully extended. (You know, like the LS, 7 Series etc with their rear side sunshades)
     
    #2 Tideland Prius, Feb 25, 2008
  3. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    You have sun? What does it look like?

    Tom
     
    #3 qbee42, Feb 25, 2008
  4. jammin012

    jammin012 The man behind The Man

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    find a 89 S10 Blazer at the junk yard, should be full of them, and take the visors off. If momory serves the should be long enough AND then come with extentions. There's also another thinner shade set behind them for the front when the side is being shaded so you don't have to keep switching back and forth.
     
    #4 jammin012, Feb 25, 2008
  5. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    Can't she squint?

    Tom
     
    #5 qbee42, Feb 25, 2008
  6. dogfriend

    dogfriend Human - Animal Hybrid

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    My GF has a 2001 Avalon. It has extendable sun visors, in fact it has a second sun visor to use when the first sun visor is deployed to the side window. I will give a look to see if I can spot any "showstoppers" that would prevent installing the Avalon visor in the Prius.
     
    #6 dogfriend, Feb 25, 2008
  7. ibmindless

    ibmindless Member

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    When I had my windows tinted, I had a strip (6" - 7") of dark tint added to the top of the windshield. That cured the sun visor issues for me.:cool:
     
    #7 ibmindless, Feb 26, 2008
  8. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    What is her position on cup holders?
     
    #8 Godiva, Feb 26, 2008
  9. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    Thanks, Dogfriend.

    For the record: yes, she can squint. But when I'm turning into traffic with the sun in my eyes, squinting doesn't help to make the oncoming traffic any clearer.

    She's not a cup holder person. But rather more practical.

    You can ding her all you want for this "petty" item, but there's a whole thread of "what would you change about the Prius" and this is one of them. I commute South every morning and North every evening with the sun in my eyes both ways. If I could get an extendable visor I would. After three-and-a-half years, I'm growing extremely tired of squinting. And the strobe effect of the sun through trees and buildings gives me a headache.

    Let me clarify something. During my commute, the sun is not in my eyes but rather only in my left eye. In my opinion, having one eye brighter than the other and having rapid light changes in one eye only is far worse than both at the same time.
     
    #9 TonyPSchaefer, Feb 26, 2008
  10. dogfriend

    dogfriend Human - Animal Hybrid

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    I missed my "window" of opportunity this morning; she's already left for work.

    I will try and get some measurements and photos this evening.
     
    #10 dogfriend, Feb 26, 2008
  11. David Beale

    David Beale Senior Member

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    I'm surprised the issue isn't the "A" pillar blocking the view. I'm constantly bobbing and weaving to make sure I don't miss a pedestrian or vehicle on the left. Volvo showed a concept "safe car" that had neat "A" pillars with gaps in them ala trusses. Those would be nice on Pearl.

    To avoid the sun drive west in the morning and east in the evening. ;)
     
    #11 David Beale, Feb 26, 2008
  12. dogfriend

    dogfriend Human - Animal Hybrid

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    Ok, I went out and took a look. Unfortunately, I don't think this will work because:

    1. The 01 Avalon visor is approx 1.5 inches longer than the Prius visor. That means that the Avalon visor will interfere with the map light area in the Prius.

    2. The mounting bracket is different; I don't think it will fit into the recess in the Prius headliner and the mounting hole pattern may be different too (I didn't pull the plastic cover on the Avalon mounting bracket.

    3. The vanity light is built into the Avalon visor, but not the Prius visor. I don't know if this would be a problem for wiring the vanity light.
     

    Attached Files:

    #12 dogfriend, Feb 27, 2008
  13. jammin012

    jammin012 The man behind The Man

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    Are you kidding????? With a big enough hammer we can make anything work.
     
    #13 jammin012, Feb 27, 2008
  14. dogfriend

    dogfriend Human - Animal Hybrid

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    The original request was for a clean installation; I don't think it will meet that requirement by "hammering" it on.
     
    #14 dogfriend, Feb 27, 2008
  15. DF Breezy

    DF Breezy New Member

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    I know this post is quite old now but was there any solution found on this issue? I've been doing a lot of research but come up with no definite success stories. I used to have an 09 Impala with extendable visors. I looked up some on eBay and found a listing with a tape measure. Looks like they would be pretty close to the size of the Prius gen II's. The mounting bracket may prove a bit of a project though since it uses three screws instead of two.

    I thought I had it all figured out with a cheap set of visors from an 05-09 Jeep Grand Cherokee, but it looks like they would be about 3/4" too long for the spot in the headliner :/

    Any thoughts or updates on this little issue?

    Prius:
    image.jpg

    Impala:
    image.jpg
     
    #15 DF Breezy, Feb 2, 2015
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