So I bought this really great $40k car - but it had a few issues. The seats sucked - so that was the first battle. Now we have that solved (to my satisfaction - see here http://www.mychevybolt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6031&start=90#p18598 and here http://www.mychevybolt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=6157).
I have a few other qualms though, the usb ports are low power (http://www.mychevybolt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5959&p=16328#p16328), and a lack of Homelink transmitter (any help here yet? looks like we have to pull down the overhead console and cut out for a homelink transmitter?). The other one that really annoyed me is based on the fact that I drive south in the mornings, north again in the evenings, and the sun is always glaring in through my drivers window, usually beyond the reach of the super economical anti-deluxe vinyl sunvisors that don't telescope in a $40k car. This one made me mad.
I had my dealer looking into cross fitting another GM sun visor, but they had no luck. I took a look at the sunvisors in my '13 Volt, and took a bunch of measurements. Sure enough they were the same size, but the wrong color and had somewhat different mounting details.
Undeterred by trivial details I bought a used set off of ebay, and a can of light grey dye. I had mixed results. It turns out the Volt sunvisors could be reasonably modified to fit, but dying the beige sunvisors gave inconsistent results. Not so good, but a good start.
About this time the wife and I kicked down the cash for a '17 Volt (lovely car - decide to buy before the Government rebates were killed off). Good news folks - not only can the 2017 Volt sunvisors be reasonably modified to fit into the Bolt, they come in the correct grey color too. They are covered in exactly the same fabric as my Bolt (light grey with a slight blueish undertone). The plastic trim on the Volt units match the plastic trim in my Bolt too.
When I went back to the parts guy at my dealer, he was willing to help me out with the purchase price of the new units - so I asked him to get me a set of 2017 Volt Sunvisors in Grey (probably the only color, but make sure) and a set of the round plastic escutcheon caps that cover the mounting base in the Volt. I picked them up the other day. With a few minutes of work they can be reasonably installed into the Bolt - and they look 100% perfect as if from the factory.
This is how to do it.
You begin by removing the factory installed sunvisors from the Bolt using a torx screwdriver. I think its a T3, but my tools don't show the size so it might be other. Remove the two screws holding the sun visor in place. Now it takes a bit of courage to get the sunvisor out - it still held in place with plastic clips. I succeeded by pulling down on the end of the visor, rotating it 90 degrees and pulling down again, and generally just working it loose. The clips could conceivably break, but I think if they do it will be on the sunvisor side that you will discard, not the plate in the headliner. It's not hard, but considering its like operating on your child, it's mildly daunting - don't worry too much, just pop them out.
With the old visors out, lay them down next to your new Volt visors and you will see a few differences. The most obvious is that the Volt visor is illuminated, and has a pair of wires coming out of it, while the Bolt does not. It's obviously possible - not too hard probably to hook up these wires to the overhead console, but I have not attempted that part yet. Note - the dealer did say the overhead console is held in place by plastic clips and it just pulls down for those of you who want to take on that part of the swap.
Comparing the two sunvisor mounting bases then looks like this (passenger side shown - drivers side similar but mirrored).
Notice that the clip shown at the 7 o clock position and the screw well at the two o clock position are going to cause problems when mounting the visor. I used a dremel to cut them off and then cleaned it up a little with an xacto knife. Please be careful. Cut off this to be flush with the base:
You want to be sure to leave the two screw wells which are 180 degrees opposite from each other intact, along with the other various clips. After you cut your base will look like this:
Do the same thing for the driver's side visor. Remember it's similar but flipped. Cut off the clip that held down the wiring and the screw well that was not 180 degrees from its mates.
Now take the visors and install them. Line up the screws with the clip in the headliner, and press it in place - it should clip in fairly well. Then secure it with the two screws. Then extend your visor and pop the grey escutcheon cap over the exposed metal arm, slide it over the plastic elbow and get it into rough position. The cut in the escutcheon cap points roughly on each side toward the front center of the car, align it roughly and then line up the small clip on the escutcheon plate with the notch on the visor plate, press it up to click it in place. It sounds complicated maybe, but it's a no brainer.
With both sides done it looks like this:
I seem to be limited to 3 pix here. I'll add another...
I have a few other qualms though, the usb ports are low power (http://www.mychevybolt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5959&p=16328#p16328), and a lack of Homelink transmitter (any help here yet? looks like we have to pull down the overhead console and cut out for a homelink transmitter?). The other one that really annoyed me is based on the fact that I drive south in the mornings, north again in the evenings, and the sun is always glaring in through my drivers window, usually beyond the reach of the super economical anti-deluxe vinyl sunvisors that don't telescope in a $40k car. This one made me mad.
I had my dealer looking into cross fitting another GM sun visor, but they had no luck. I took a look at the sunvisors in my '13 Volt, and took a bunch of measurements. Sure enough they were the same size, but the wrong color and had somewhat different mounting details.
Undeterred by trivial details I bought a used set off of ebay, and a can of light grey dye. I had mixed results. It turns out the Volt sunvisors could be reasonably modified to fit, but dying the beige sunvisors gave inconsistent results. Not so good, but a good start.
About this time the wife and I kicked down the cash for a '17 Volt (lovely car - decide to buy before the Government rebates were killed off). Good news folks - not only can the 2017 Volt sunvisors be reasonably modified to fit into the Bolt, they come in the correct grey color too. They are covered in exactly the same fabric as my Bolt (light grey with a slight blueish undertone). The plastic trim on the Volt units match the plastic trim in my Bolt too.
When I went back to the parts guy at my dealer, he was willing to help me out with the purchase price of the new units - so I asked him to get me a set of 2017 Volt Sunvisors in Grey (probably the only color, but make sure) and a set of the round plastic escutcheon caps that cover the mounting base in the Volt. I picked them up the other day. With a few minutes of work they can be reasonably installed into the Bolt - and they look 100% perfect as if from the factory.
This is how to do it.
You begin by removing the factory installed sunvisors from the Bolt using a torx screwdriver. I think its a T3, but my tools don't show the size so it might be other. Remove the two screws holding the sun visor in place. Now it takes a bit of courage to get the sunvisor out - it still held in place with plastic clips. I succeeded by pulling down on the end of the visor, rotating it 90 degrees and pulling down again, and generally just working it loose. The clips could conceivably break, but I think if they do it will be on the sunvisor side that you will discard, not the plate in the headliner. It's not hard, but considering its like operating on your child, it's mildly daunting - don't worry too much, just pop them out.
With the old visors out, lay them down next to your new Volt visors and you will see a few differences. The most obvious is that the Volt visor is illuminated, and has a pair of wires coming out of it, while the Bolt does not. It's obviously possible - not too hard probably to hook up these wires to the overhead console, but I have not attempted that part yet. Note - the dealer did say the overhead console is held in place by plastic clips and it just pulls down for those of you who want to take on that part of the swap.
Comparing the two sunvisor mounting bases then looks like this (passenger side shown - drivers side similar but mirrored).
Notice that the clip shown at the 7 o clock position and the screw well at the two o clock position are going to cause problems when mounting the visor. I used a dremel to cut them off and then cleaned it up a little with an xacto knife. Please be careful. Cut off this to be flush with the base:
You want to be sure to leave the two screw wells which are 180 degrees opposite from each other intact, along with the other various clips. After you cut your base will look like this:
Do the same thing for the driver's side visor. Remember it's similar but flipped. Cut off the clip that held down the wiring and the screw well that was not 180 degrees from its mates.
Now take the visors and install them. Line up the screws with the clip in the headliner, and press it in place - it should clip in fairly well. Then secure it with the two screws. Then extend your visor and pop the grey escutcheon cap over the exposed metal arm, slide it over the plastic elbow and get it into rough position. The cut in the escutcheon cap points roughly on each side toward the front center of the car, align it roughly and then line up the small clip on the escutcheon plate with the notch on the visor plate, press it up to click it in place. It sounds complicated maybe, but it's a no brainer.
With both sides done it looks like this:
I seem to be limited to 3 pix here. I'll add another...
