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I did some looking through the forum but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. Sorry if I missed it.
I bought a 2000 F350 with the factory visor on it. I don't like it and I'd like to remove it if possible. I know there's going to be holes of some sort in the roof, but I haven't been able to find anyone talking about/posting pictures of them. If it worked out, I was going to put clearance lights of some sort in the holes unless there's some tried-and-true method to seal them that doesn't involve welding. Before I even venture down this road though, I was hoping someone would be willing to share pictures of what things look like under the visor and any success/horror stories of their similar adventure.
I've only dealt with aftermarket visors, so I don't know how that mounts, but just looking at it, I'm guessing the clearance light holes aren't there and you'll have to plug some mounting holes. When I worked in the body shop, when we removed the aftermarket ones, we never welded them. It's fairly easy to warp the roof panel if you're not careful with the welding, you need to protect the interior from welding sparks showering down and you usually end up with a larger area to paint. We used panel bonding adhesive to patch it up. We glued a small piece of sheet metal over the holes we could get to from the inside. This requires dropping the headliner which can be a PITA sometimes. Any holes we couldn't get to the back of, we ground down around the screw hole about 1/2", dimpled it with a ball peen, then filled the hole and dent with adhesive and treated it like body filler. If you're careful you can keep each touch up spot about the size of a quarter, which is easy to blend in with some color match spray paint if you don't want to paint the whole roof.
Some people just use some type of plug and a sealant like silicone or windshield adhesive, but they almost always leak eventually.
Below, you'll find photos of what the Ford OEM factory exterior sun visor looks like.
The mounting, removal, and bracket/holes left in the roof after removal are different with the factory exterior sun visor than aftermarket sun visors.
If you don't want a sun visor, then in my opinion you are lucky that you DON'T have the factory sun visor, which is why I'm taking the time to show you a few photos to help you see the difference.
My guess is that it will be easier to remove and restore your roof with the aftermarket visor that you have.
Below, you'll find photos of what the Ford OEM factory exterior sun visor looks like.
The mounting, removal, and bracket/holes left in the roof after removal are different with the factory exterior sun visor than aftermarket sun visors.
If you don't want a sun visor, then in my opinion you are lucky that you DON'T have the factory sun visor, which is why I'm taking the time to show you a few photos to help you see the difference.
My guess is that it will be easier to remove and restore your roof with the aftermarket visor that you have.
Thank you for the information - I didn't realize this was aftermarket. The buddy I bought it from has owned the truck since it was very young and he didn't install it. I didn't figure a truck with 20,000 miles on it (when my buddy bought it) would have an aftermarket visor, but I see my assumptions were incorrect. I appreciate the education and pictures.
At this point then, I'm probably going to have to remove mine and see what they left me to deal with? I assume aftermarket visors are different enough that the only way around this would be finding someone else with this exact same visor? I can't imagine aftermarket brands using the same bracketry and mounting hardware.
