I recently found a vintage Dieterich sun visor at a great price - $75 - right here in my home town. Good prospect for my '54 3100. ( My truck that is not headed for full restoration , I just want to "unBubba" and drive it.)
There was some damage : The right wing had been bent. As most of you already know , the rigidity of the aluminum visor wings is based on the rolled leading edge. If a wing is bent , the rolled edge kinks. In this case there were two concave depressions in the top surface and the wing was bent upwards slightly , as though something had been dropped on it from above. The picture showing the visor lying on my driveway does not show the dents. It does show the weathered condition - I plan to sand very lightly and clear coat the original finish.

My solution : With no experience whatsoever in body work I placed the visor belly up on a block of styrofoam and tap-tap-tapped the dents out with a rubber mall. That corrected the concave depressions , although the top surface is slightly rippled - the aluminum does not spread the load the way steel would. Not perfect but much improved. Still not completely straightened out , however. Still flexible. I then clamped the visor wing onto a good true piece of lumber and bedded an aluminum rod into the inside curve of the leading rolled edge. The rod was a shotgun cleaning rod ; bedding material : JB weld. Clamps came off this morning , wing is very nearly straight and nicely rigid. Next I'll sand and clean up the bedding material , probably fair it in a bit , then repaint the underside of the entire visor with zinc chromate ; that should take the edge off of the appearance.

Added note:
I had my choice between the weathered , damaged Dieterich and a vintage Fulton in very good condition ($275) ; I chose the Dieterich because it had much more character , and the need to repair and salvage it is consistent with the rest of my truck.
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