Down South Vettes Leather Sun Visor Installation
Difficulty: 3 out of 5.
Time: Plan on about 30 minutes.
The tools used are:
A medium blade screw driver
A small flashlight may help get a better look at the work location as you start.
Let's get a look at the project. If you have a coupe, you may want to remove the roof. If
you have a convertible you may want to lower the top. This will both make maneuvering
the visor assembly easier but it will also provide you with better lighting in the cockpit for
your task.
Here are a few side by side comparison photos of the new Down South Vettes visor and how
it compares to the OEM unit you will be replacing.
The DSV unit starts with an OEM core and removes the fabric treatment and replaces it with
the same high quality leather used in each of the other interior parts
The leather treatment to the sun visor will add a little bit of thickness to the unit.
Start the installation by tipping the sun visor down towards the windshield as if you were
trying to block out the sun while driving.
Next, unhook the sun visor from the latch up on the windshield frame. Once you have done
this it may be a good time to grab your flashlight and take a look at the steps that you will
be doing next. In the picture below you will see the screwdriver placed near the slot that
you will use to release the sun visor from the pillar.
To describe the task, you need to place your screw driver up in to this slot as shown here
Now, while pressing your screwdriver up in to this slot you need to press firmly with your
left hand and using your right hand, rotate the entire sun visor assembly counter-clockwise
(counter-clockwise for the driver side, clockwise for the passenger side) back towards you
as if you were moving the lowered sun visor from the windshield to the side window. It
should only take about a quarter of a revolution of the bezel as pictured above. This
quarter turn will translate to about 45 degrees of the sun visor relative to the windshie ld. If
the windshield is 0 degrees and the side window is 90 you should end up about halfway in
between. You will feel it when it unlocks. You will see that the bezel is no longer seated
against the roof. It will look like this:
Once the bezel and the assembly are unlocked from the car you will need to pull down on
the sun visor arm to remove it from the hole. You may need to work it back a forth slightly
to free it from the car. Don't pull down too hard. Firm is fine but be prepared for it to come
loose. Now that it is loose from the car you still have the connector assembly to contend
with. You may need to reach up inside the opening to free the connector. The connector
looks like this:
To disconnect the connector you will need your screwdriver again to free the clip from the
detent on the mating connector. You can see the slot for the detent pictured below. Insert
the screwdriver in the top righthand corner and gently pry forward until the clip is above the
height of the small tab. This will allow you to pull on the connector and free the visor.
Once you have the connector disconnected it should still have the bezel attached and look
like this:
Now you need to remove the bezel from the visor assembly. If you look down at the
connector end and bezel you will notice three locking tabs on the bezel that hold it on the
visor assembly.
Using one hand to hold the visor assembly near the arm, with your other hand you need to
pull out on the three tabs to free them from the locked position on the visor assembly.
Once the bezel is unlocked it will float freely on the visor arm.
To remove, align the triangle on the bezel with the triangle on the visor arm and you can
slide the bezel up and off the visor assembly. Now just free the connector from the bezel.
Pick up the new Down South Vettes visor and take note of the shape of the locking
mechanism at the connector end. You will notice three distinct shapes to the corners of the
connector triangle.
Each corner has a different radius and will match up with a radius on the bezel as pictured
here:
Match the shape on the bezel with the same size shape on the visor assembly and slide the
bezel over the connector and down onto the visor assembly. When you first slide it on it will
look like this:
While looking from the top down as pictured above, rotate the bezel clockwise and you will
feel it lock in to place on the visor assembly. Once locked it will look like this:
With one tab of the bezel now aligned with each tab of the visor assembly. You should also
notice that the base of the bezel as viewed from the side is now flush with base of the visor
connector mount. You are now ready to put your new visor back in the car.
Grab your screw driver as you will need to reverse the steps you took to get the visor out of
the car. Place the visor up on end in your lap and re-connect the visor electrical plug:
You now need to tuck the connector back up into the frame. Tuck it up in towards the
rearview mirror side.
It's time to push the visor assembly and bezel back up in to the frame. There is only one
way for it to go back up into the car. You may need to work it a little bit to find the location
but try to remember the angle at which the visor was at when you removed it. Once you
find the slot for the latch to go into, slide it up and press it firmly in place. You will need to
hold it in place and reach for your screw driver. It should look about like this:
All that's left to do is latch the assembly back in to place. You will need to use your
screwdriver and place it back in the slot like you did to remove it. This time, place the
screw driver to the right side of the visor arm (This is for the driver's side. In either case,
place it into the slot and have the shaft of the screwdriver on the rearview mirror side of the
visor arm.) While pressing up firmly on the screwdriver rotate the visor and bezel assembly
from the arm pressing against the screwdriver blade and this will cause the bezel to rotate
and latch into place on the car. Congratulations, you've just installed your new visors.
DSVette Corvette Leather Interior Installation
Down South Vettes Custom leather interior
Would you like to really spruce up the interior of your Corvette C6? The Down South Vette leather interior is one of those Corvette Parts that you cannot resist!! This article will show you how to completely tear down the center stack and install the Down South Vette Console Lid, DSVette Shift Boot, DSVette Brake Handle, Ebrake boot, Down South Vette radio bezel, and the DSVette Center console base. The installation is on an Automatic transmission.
Before picture. Completely stock Corvette C6 interior.
After picture.
All of the parts going on in this batch. Center console base, console lid, center dash, shift knob, shift boot, brake knob, and brake boot.
I cut this piece of foam drawer liner to line the center console with.
In this picture you can see the shift knob is removed. To remove put the car in neutral, set parking brake, and turn off car. Then you twist the plastic ring shown in the picture (ring at top of the leather boot). Twist it clockwise from about 12 to 2 position. Now pull up on the shift knob and at the same time pull down on the ring. I'd same more pulling up on the knob than anything. It should pop off and you are left with the above picture.
Remove console cover. 4 Torx screws.
Remove brake knob. Phillips screw show here. Just slide the boot down and out of the way.
Now that the screw is removed just pull off the knob. To remove the brake boot just pull it off. There are 2 pressure pins and 2 notched pins.
Brake knob and boot removed.
Remove these two hex head screws.
The center dash peice is all pressure fit. It will pull back easily, start at the bottom and work your way to the top. Don't pull too far, there are a lot of cables attached. There are a ton of things to unplug so I'll attempt to point them out. This is drivers side heated seat. I'm going to show all of the wire plugs, it might help to see them when you are feeling around behind the bezel to unplug them.
This is passenger side heated seat. Just squeeze the bottom middle and it pops out.
Ash try cigarette lighter.
Emergency flasher button.
Center console cigarette lighter plug.
Traction control button.
Here is a picture with everything out.
The boot needs the shift ring taken out by cutting the zip tie. The plastic ring around the shift position indicator is glued in so it needs the leather pulled away.
The leather boot is cut for the position indicator, but I think it really needs glued in.
Here is the boot with the plastic position indicator glued in. I glued it back in similar to how the factory boot was glued into it. I used some leather/fabric glue. You apply to the leather and plastic, wait a few minutes, and then both are tacky.
The center ring just slips right into the new boot. It's a pressure fit.
The position indicator ring snaps back in, the boot slips over the entire shifter base, the center ring slips back on, with light pressure push the shift knob back on, turn the center ring from 2 counter clockwise back to 12. You can see the shift position indicator is just sitting on; with some light pressure it will go back into place.
I hate to say put everything back together in reverse, but that is what you do. Put the console base on first (if you took it off to install a new one). Then snap the radio bezel back in place starting at the top. You'll probably have some trouble on the passenger side. It's all a tight fit because the new leather is a thicker product than the factory stuff. The brake boot goes on next, then the brake handle, and finally console cover.
Corvette C6 NPP Retro-Fit for Multi Mode Exhaust
NPP in a box, a set of NPP mufflers and a M2W switch will give you an incredibly easy way to have just the sound you want, when you want, if you have a pre-2008 C6. In my case, throw in a set of LG headers, and you have rolling thunder at the flick of a switch. The combo of the headers and the NPP in Wild gives you AMAZING sound and "HEY, LOOK AT ME!!!" volume…the tonality and sound is that of a NASCAR stock car at WOT outside the car, yet quieter and less drone inside the car than the GHL exhaust I was so fond of. The install is very straight forward, easier with a lift, but as Ed has shown with his car, you can do it on jack stands. Here are some pics and descriptions of the step by step process; you will receive complete illustrated instructions with your purchase.
NPP Mufflers waiting for Install
Factory Exhaust Removed
Run the Vacuum tubes through existing frame locations
After dropping the rear sway bar, snake the NPP mufflers up and over
Attach the pipes to the mufflers
Connect the vacuum hoses to the NPP mufflers
Make sure your muffler pipes are straight and level
Muffler hardware done and vacuum tubing run
And of course, a quick run with Ed's Polishing kit
That's all there is to it.....All that's left is to go out there and have a blast with your new found customized sound.