sunshade repair "how-to"

[Green1]

As the general consensus appears to be that I do not know what I'm talking about, and cause more harm than good, I am removing this post so that others are not tricked in to following my ill-advised instructions.

[josh]

Thats a sweet documented fix.... we should have that posted in the FAQ section. Thanks green... now I have no more excuses. (Well maybe I can come up with a few!)

Josh

[BCDelica]

My thanks and hats off to you for posting the
'holy grail' of Deli fix's.

If I was the mod here.........

[josh]

Wow, gold stars like that! Woowee... that is motivation.

Josh

[jwfchase]

I'm midway through this jobby, thanks for the detailed instructions... the tricky part is going to be figuring out something to replace the plastic clip with like you did...

[delicat]

I was talking to Glen at CCautos and he mentioned that often it's easier to replace the entire mechanism with a used one then trying to fix it. While at his shop a few weeks ago I saw at least 6 used shade mechanism in his shop... If you end up having more problem than you can deal with it might be a good idea to give Glen a call!

Hopefully the one you're fixing is at the back 'cause the front one are twice the work!

Good luck,
David

[Green1]

I was talking to Glen at CCautos and he mentioned that often it's easier to replace the entire mechanism with a used one then trying to fix it.

I can 100% guarantee that this is NOT the case.
I have repaired 3 of my 4 shades now, and I have yet to even figure out how to get the mechanism out of the vehicle, it is a MAJOR disassembly job to get at the whole mechanism, it is MUCH easier to simply replace the broken clips.

[delicat]

Many things can go wrong with the shades, it's not always the clips that brake. If it's the cable that disconnect or brake I'm not sure you'll be able to fix it. You've done a great post with pictures and description which will come handy to many of us but there's not only a single way to tackle a problem... So my previous post is just another side of the coin, may work for you or may not.

David

[Green1]

I have only once heard of a case where it was not the clips, and it's such a major disassembly job to get at anything further that very few people will be willing to tackle it, and if they do, I doubt the repair vs. replace thing will make much difference.

[jessef]

Marshmellow came with one shade not opening.

I'll give this a shot. Thanks for the detailed teardown

Jesse

[torchard]

BTW CC Autos has new replacement clips.

[jwfchase]

OK, first off unlike many of you on this forum, I am neither eqipped with the tools or the skills to manufacture Delica vehicle parts out of pieces of metal stock (I wish I was though!) So, as I mentioned earlier I decided to tackle the window shade fix, but I had no idea what to do to replace the broken plastic clips. After doing some experimenting with materials that I DID have around (I thought I was onto something when I started cutting up aluminium "H" clips for plywood house sheathing- but... no...) When I finally came up with something that a no-talent clown like me could work with:



After some precision trimming with the snips, and a bending over of the ends:



And I had the beginnings of a set of new clips for one side of the vehicle. I bent up the side that would be hooking on to the end of the shade rod first, and then bent/"crimped" my little creation onto the pushrod:



I bent the rest in place to make sure it would fit up into the end of the track, using pliers, needlenose pliers, and fingers. The rod ends up coming in from the right side, once it was through the big hole I used the needlenose to crimp up the little curled up bit you see on the right edge, to lock the end of the rod in place:



After lots of finicking to the clip on each end to get them both into place, here's how it looked before I fit the shade rod back into the track. The rod went in through the large hole you see in the clip:



So here's the material before, and how it ended up:



And, finally, here's the working shades, and the reason the shades HAD to be fixed (we get lots of beautiful sunshine here...). My daughter Aria had gone to bed already when I took this picture, but hopefully she'll stay nice and cool in her seat this summer!:



So hopefully my makeshift material will be durable enough (I think these steel clips, although thin, will outlast any plastic replacements), the shades are working great though! Thanks again Green1 for your photos to get me started!

[torchard]

Well done! By the looks of things that is a very effective fix and the price is right.

--T

[Green1]

Bravo! those are much better pictures than I managed of the clip construction!

That's basically the same material I used to make my clips I just didn't manage such an excellent how-to.

[ccautos]

I have found many different ways in which these blind units can fail . The most common being broken clips in the sliders . If the blind is used after that clip breaks it can `grind` the cables into the plastic drive wheel on the motor and fray the cables . This scenario normally requires the blind unit replacing . The other failure is the recoil spring on the blind failing which as yet I have been unable to source repair part for and normally requires a replacement unit . The clips that break are not easy to replace but provide the most economical replacement part in the entire blind at only $7 each . I have lots of replacement complete blind units in stock at $100 each .