Visor Rod Ends

One of the things I had noticed on Lowell Brown's 330 GT was that the visor rods had plastic ends that prevented the metal rod from vibrating against the metal hook near the center of the windshield.

I found some nylon spacers at a local hardware store that were about the right size.  Lowell's were .6" long with an ID of .24" and an OD of .31".  The ones I found were .5" long with an OD of .375" and a .125" ID.  It would have been nicer to find longer ones that I could have cut to the proper length, but one uses what is available.  I first drilled out the center so it just fit over a long screw.  Then, I chucked the screw with the spacers into a portable driver drill.  Using the drill to rotate the spacers, I sanded down the outside by running them against a belt sander.  The combination of the belt moving along with the spacers being rotating makes fast work and keeps the outside round.  The final sanding was done using finer sandpaper on a palm sander still using the drill to rotate the spacers.

Then I had the problem of getting the inside hole the correct diameter.  I ruined the first spacer by trying to drill too large of a hole to start with.  I drilled out the second spacer by using every numbered drill bit up to the right size by hand.  As each numbered drill bit is only about .004" larger than the previous one, it's easy just to turn the bit in the nylon spacer while holding it.  However, the nylon was flexible enough at the end to conform to the drill rather than have the material removed.  I ended up using a small diamond bit in my Dremel tool to finish the holes to the proper size.  If I were to do this again, I would start by first making the center hole the proper size and then sanding down the outside.  With the wall being thicker, I think that the center hole would drill out to the right size properly.

Here's the final result.

You can see how the plastic piece keeps the bar from rattling against the hook that holds the end.

An update:
Since I destroyed one of the spacers, I had to go back and get another one.  I was able to find some 1" x .185" x .375" from Small Parts (#14 screw insulator - IN-14/12).  It worked quite well to drill out the center and then use a 1/4" bolt to hold the spacers while sanding down the outside to the right diameter.  Then I cut them off to the proper length of .6".  Making two this way took only an hour while I spent about 2 hours and a blister making the one the other day.