How I fixed my corner roller shade for the cost of the deposit on a soda can.

My right, rear, triangular roller sun shade would not retract. In addition, without any tension, it would not stay hooked up correctly. Of course, I could not let this be!

The roller shade is pretty easy (but tricky) to remove. You need to insert something like a small allen wrench into the hole at the top rear of the shade cartridge. You need to wedge it between the metal bracket (above) and the plastic catch (below) and push straight forward. The shade can then be pulled away from the pillar. For a picture, see this post on RoadFly or (An even better post!)

The first picture above shows what was done. The tiny piece of plastic which holds the rectangular pin at the bottom of the roller was broken. Since this was a very poor surface for glue, I decided to make a new plate to hold the pin. Since it was 11 PM, I decided to make a quick prototype using a soda can and some tin snips. In about 15 minutes (including 2 tries) I had a prototype that worked so well that I didn't bother making a better one.

I cut a rectangular piece of aluminum which I trimmed to fit between the roller and the broken plastic end. I then cut a hole for the rectangular pin. Then I rolled up the shade and gave the pin another half turn or so and slid on the new metal piece.

It worked perfectly! I then trimmed the excess aluminum and folded the top edge to hide the sharp part. I let it stick up a bit so that it would wedge against the car door when the roller was re-installed. The second photo shows a close-up of the finished product. If I moved the roller very often, I would probably use a thicker piece of metal as the aluminum hole will probably fail some time.

Disclaimer: This is what I did. Try at your own risk.

Comments? E-mail me at:
hbimmer (at) roadfly.com