As well as improving the look of your car, rear windscreen blinds have a number of practical benefits. First they make your car more secure because they hide any valuables on the rear shelf (including radio-cassette speakers) from a casual car thief passing by.
They also help to keep your car interior cool on a hot summer's day by blocking off the sunlight pouring through the rear screen, and they reduce dazzle in your rear view mirror, whether it be from the headlights of the car behind you or from bright sunlight.
You have a choice of two types of blind - roll-up and louvred, the louvred types being basically similar to a household Venetian blind.
Roll-up blinds are often easier to fit , but they do have one disadvantage - they have to be either up or down. With louvred blinds, however, you can vary the amount of light coming through the rear screen by tilting the slats.
Always remember, however, that you should never drive with the slats angled in such a way that they impair your rear-view vision.
A further advantage of louvred blinds is that some of them are electrically operated by a dashboard-mounted control, which allows you to adjust the slats from the driver's seat. Some Models even open and close the blinds automatically when you switch the ignition on and off. This article covers fitting louvred blinds only.
Louvred blinds fit on the inside of the rear screen and are available in a range of colours so that you can match or contrast them with the colour of your car interior. They can be fitted to most models, including hatchbacks.
As well as the electrically operated louvred blinds, you can also buy manually operated ones. The procedure for fitting the blind itself is the same, whether it is an electrically or manually operated one.
1. Marking out
2. Ladder length
3. Cutting ladders
4. Fit extrusions
5. Top window brackets
6. Assemble blind
7. Lower brackets
8. Fitting slats
9. Electric blind wiring
