Jul 8, 2012
116
10
Toronto
VetteCoins
511
Car
1997 C5
The C5 in some respects was ahead of its time and came equipped with many luxuries that were not available in most cars for it's time (think TPMS, climate control, DIC, HUD etc etc) so it puzzled me that it did not come equipped with a homelink or other garage door opener. I've never been a fan of carrying my clunky old remote in the car. I know it's been done before but us Canadians need to have our own DIY knowledge base! :canada: Here's my tutorial on this clean and cheap mod.

For those not interested in the full tutorial, here's the before and after, more pictures below of the process and final results!
DgrN3HBl.jpg



Tools Needed
- Homelink device (bought this off ebay for $20)
- flat head screwdriver
- small utility knife
- wire cutter/stripper
- saw or rotary tool/dremel with cutting attachment
- electrical tape or shrink tubing
- double sided tape
- needle and thread (optional if you want to sew it up yourself OR pay someone to sew it up for you)

Total Cost: $20-30 + labour for stitching assuming you already have all the tools


I will skip the removal of the visor, you can find resources on this online and it's simple enough...jab the flat head screwdriver into the slit of the pivot point on the visor and twist, it pops right out.

I started off by taking apart the homelink button trim pieces and also testing the electronics by hooking it up to the battery of my garage opener accessed through the back plate. Now is a perfect time to train the homelink to verify it works since you have it all hooked up anyway. It's also a great way to figure out which wire is +ve and which is -ve (ground) when the wire colours are slightly ambiguous like mine

NOTE: the plastic trim piece just pops off with a little bit of elbow grease and a small flathead screwdriver to pry it off.
JFqp20Sl.jpg


Remove the stitching on the visor (I used this opportunity to see how the stitching worked so i could replicate it when sewing it back up). Once it's opened up place your homelink in position of where you would like it to sit and then trace the outline of it on the particle board to be cut. You can see i left a small piece of the board in tact at the bottom. I left that there for rigidity so the visor wouldn't be able to "flop" around compared to if i were to just lop off the entire section.
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Take your dremel and carefully cut along the outline. I wanted to make sure i didn't accidentally cut the carboard and lining of the visor so i placed a metal plate under the board as a precaution. It is also important to take your time and be careful...measure twice (or 10 times) and cut once! Check the fitment and make adjustments as necessary. I ended up cutting a little bit more than i traced and then filed down the edges so the fit felt nicer
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Now comes the fun part, as you can see, my visor had black wires only...which is not terribly helpful! in the picture below the circular clear object in the top left is the switch for the vanity mirror when the lid is flipped open. directly to the right of it you will see a wire that is attached to a plate connected to this switch, this is your +ve wire and it is constant power even when the car is off. Perfect for your homelink! Make sure to tap into this wire before the switch on the left! if you splice the wires after, the homelink will only be powered when the vanity mirror lights are on which we do not want. Directly below the +ve wire is the -ve (ground) wire which goes straight into the -ve terminal of the vanity light.
QH66cQwl.jpg


Cut and splice the wires, I decided not to cut the wires and simply removed a section of the insulation on the wires, then thread the homelink wires inbetween the exposed wiring. If done correctly this will act similiar to a knot and allows you to skip soldering and is less bulky compared to cutting and splicing in my opinion. shrink tube or electrical tape the wires. If you want to be sure, before you tape it up and sew it all up, reconnect the visor to the car and test the homelink to make sure you have wired it correctly
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take some double sided tape and secure the homelink device in place. now to cut the visor so the button trim can be installed. It's kind of awkward to do so what i did was i took a needle and placed it where the buttons were, closed the visor so the needle would penetrate on the other side and make small holes to mark where i needed to cut.
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cut CAREFULLY. I suggest start by connected the 3 needle holes and then taking a small and sharp pair of scissors (i used the one in my swiss army knife) cut a little bit off at a time, close the visor to check fit and then cut some more. it is imperative that you don't cut too much of the fabric because there's no going back in this step! the final cuts should expose the 3 buttons on the homelink, the 2 holes where the button trim tabs lock into place on the sides of the buttons and the LED light above the middle button. You can see that i definitely took my time and measured about 50 times and made a lot of adjustment cuts. slow and steady wins the race!
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For good measure i added double sided tape to the side facing up on the homelink device, closed the visor and started sewing...It's very difficult to explain and teach how the stitching works...Google tells me it's called lock stitching. Here is a picture i found on google that gives you an idea of how the stitching works...You essentially will have 2 threads that have interlocking loops on the inside of the visor. this closes up the visor and if done correctly will pull it taut so there is not much slack for the visor to come apart.
Doppelsteppstich_332x120.jpg

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Almost home free! install the button trim last and then reinstall the visor into the car and bask in the feeling of accomplishment :D
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Here is some final product pictures and a comparison of my stitching to the stock passenger side visor stitching
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Closing Notes
- This is a relative easy mod (except for the stitching) and also one of my favourites that i've done on the C5
- the scariest part of this mod is cutting the hole in your visor for the homelink buttons
- measure, measure, measure, did i mention measure? and then cut.
- if you find a good seamstress or upholstery repair place, i would probably recommend you have them stitch up your visor as it will probably take them 5 minutes. I did not have a sewing machine or any real sewing skills so the stitching took me hours to complete. the rest of the job took me maybe 30-60 minutes

As always I'm more than happy to help so feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need clarification on anything and happy holidays everyone!
 
PYRO... Outstanding work.
I acquired my C5 this past summer and wondered why there wasn't a factory homelink garage door opener? I looked into the visor-build but could not find a GM or other make homelink device at the wrecking yards.
I do have an extra garage door opener and my plans are to build it into the car and have a button/LED remotely located into the console or ashtray area. I just picked up a button and LED at the electronics store last week.

Your build into the visor does look very professional.
I have an extra set of visors that I was thinking of having redone in leather..Maybe this is the time to add the homelink??
Great job. thanx for the picture essay.

graham
 
PYRO... Outstanding work.
I acquired my C5 this past summer and wondered why there wasn't a factory homelink garage door opener? I looked into the visor-build but could not find a GM or other make homelink device at the wrecking yards.
I do have an extra garage door opener and my plans are to build it into the car and have a button/LED remotely located into the console or ashtray area. I just picked up a button and LED at the electronics store last week.

Your build into the visor does look very professional.
I have an extra set of visors that I was thinking of having redone in leather..Maybe this is the time to add the homelink??
Great job. thanx for the picture essay.

graham

Thanks for your kind words and congrats on the C5! It's definitely something you can look into. Homelinks are universal so any make/model equipped with a visor homelink should suffice. The newer ones tend to be smaller and thinner which makes them easier to work into the visor.

I would recommend looking online on eBay for a homelink device if you are interested. The price is good and saves you the trouble of going to the wreckers to look for one. I didn't bother going to the wreckers myself and just went straight to eBay!
 

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