How good are your wipers? (2 Viewers)

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I have learn my lesson over the years. Having to drive hundreds of miles, hour after hour in the rain or snow to get to work.

There is nothing worse than driving a bucket truck and grease off the boom has fell down on the windshield and smeared .

So I am very OCD about a clean windshield. Scrubbed with hand cleaner and these abrasive hand towels to remove the grease and grime
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Then use this kind of glass cleaner... Windex is what the Winos under the bridge drink.

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Read the label... towards the bottom you'll see the good stuff... they should have put skull and cross bones there.
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Anyhoo... after cleaning the windshield with throughly... I then apply two coats of Rainx and use Rainx washer fluid.

And new windshield wipers! Regular ole rubber wipers.

Now even wipers get dirty too. So you have to clean them with those hand towels and then cleaned with that Glass cleaner.

Well... you asked.... I think.. maybe I got carried away....oh well.. but I do have a very CLEAN windshield:hillbilly::hmm::flipoff2:
 
Sorry if this gets long. Coffee and learning how to type will do that.

I have no windshield, so I have no problem.

But on my other vehicles my method of choice I use now after decades of trial and error is,

Wash then clean the windshield with Zep (or Windex) foaming glass cleaner.

Clay bar the windshield with soapy water. (works great)

Rinse & dry then apply Rain-X.

Fill reservoir with Rain-X washer fluid.

I've been using the silicone blade refills. Seem to last longer.

I prefer the squirt bottle of Rain-X as the spray gets blown onto my paint. I apply it liberally while spreading & rubbing it in with a half sheet paper towel folded in half 3 times. Let it dry. Apply a second coat right over the first, well dried coat. When the second dries, remove with wet, wrung out paper towels or cloth. Buff with dry paper towels or cloth.

It ticks me off how the wiper blade companies have tricked us into replacing the whole blade instead of just the refills. Some of the brands use different width refills so you can’t mix and match. So, after buying refills that can’t go in or ones that fall out, you just go buy the whole blade. The way of the future I guess but I still do refills where I can.

My 89 F250 was sold after 18 years with the original blades that accepted the Napa refills. No paint on the arms or blades but they were working perfectly when sold.

My 05 Honda CRV with original blades takes the PIAA silicone refills @ $8 ea. And work great.

My 07 GMC 2500 however, has the one-piece springless plastic blade with the rubber molded in, so I’m stuck buying those expensive things that are fragile at the connection point and I've broken a few either installing or washing the truck.

Sorry for the rant but I think my method above would help ya.
 
Mine are 1974. Don’t know how well they work yet, seem good. I was going to do a thread on this after I got some real uses out of them to make sure this works.

A thread on here pointed me to some VW wiper arms. I put those on, but the incorrect angle bugged me. So I pulled out my old OEM arms and ordered new blades. While I was fiddling around with them on the work bench, the arms had been bent by a PO trying to get more tension, I noted a striking similarity between the springs. Almost identical shape and length. Amazingly they swapped. I unbent the arms and installed them. Just don’t lose the tiny pin on the OEM arm holding the top of the spring. Tension seems great. Sort of a “not cost effective” way to get springs since I bought entire arms, but I think it worked for me. Maybe someone can run down a spring source for the VW arms to try. Again, garage tested only to this point, but they sweep glass cleaner great. YRMV.

VW arms from Rock Auto.
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Black VW springs versus old OEM(?) spring photo below:
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Installed on one wiper arm:
3351BAA0-0A41-4EFA-AFF0-553B9FC4BEF0.jpeg


OEM versus VW arms below:
F5412B30-5CB6-4E27-AB1E-7D5A8F0E2E52.jpeg


OEM on both below:
8B614963-AA49-4A97-A3E2-76A7AFA2079B.jpeg
 
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I just put a digital luggage scale on the arms. They pull off at 1.1 to 1.2 lbs, fwiw. My Corolla and 80 series seem to pull at 1.6 lbs measuring where the arm and blade meet. But since the FJ40 windscreen is flat, maybe not as much tension is required (or desired with the old motor). Again, not checked on the street yet.

Edit to add: my 80 series (still) original rear wiper pulls off at 0.9 - 1.0 lbs, so I’m 20% above that.
 
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This is all good info! Keep it coming.


Mine are 1974. Don’t know how well they work yet, seem good. I was going to do a thread on this after I got some real uses out of them to make sure this works.

A thread on here pointed me to some VW wiper arms. I put those on, but the incorrect angle bugged me. So I pulled out my old OEM arms and ordered new blades. While I was fiddling around with them on the work bench, the arms had been bent by a PO trying to get more tension, I noted a striking similarity between the springs. Almost identical shape and length. Amazingly they swapped. I unbent the arms and installed them. Just don’t lose the tiny pin on the OEM arm holding the top of the spring. Tension seems great. Sort of a “not cost effective” way to get springs since I bought entire arms, but I think it worked for me. Maybe someone can run down a spring source for the VW arms to try. Again, garage tested only to this point, but they sweep glass cleaner great. YRMV.

VW arms from Rock Auto.
View attachment 1827542

Black VW springs versus old OEM(?) spring photo below:
View attachment 1827544

Installed on one wiper arm:
View attachment 1827547

OEM versus VW arms below:
View attachment 1827548

OEM on both below:
View attachment 1827549


I think that was @JohnnyC that did the VW arms on his rig. I’d like to keep mine stock ideally. The spring info is good. That was something I was thinking about already.
 
From RockAuto, the VW arms cost me $25 for two, including shipping.

I should probably buy a couple sets of OEM blades before those, too, are NLA.
 
I use All these products with Excellent as stated on the Labels results


i use ONLY OEM wiper blades , & Do have a washer resovour pump & squirter nozzle's Jets that work properly




i also have aimed or aligned the squirter jets to shhot at the bottom of the windshield so the blades push the rain-ex fluid up and smear it over

the entire swing of blade stroke field of vision




prodCat_windshield-washer-fluid.jpg
 
I put new inserts in my OEM arms maybe once a year. I think it is like $4 for 2 inserts. They aren't perfect but I have driven through some bad storms and I was able to see fine. Mine are the bottom mounted style.
 
+1 on the Rainx, lots of experience with it in the race car as well. I would like to hear a report on the VW arms. Although I have a '74, my wipers are mounted on the bottom, they work poorly compared to any modern car, hence the reason for RainX. Heavy rain is time for a cocktail.

Let's not get into "my Mayflies are bigger than your Mayflies".
 
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I would like to hear a report on the VW arms.

@JohnnyC was the one who did the VW arms I believe, he hasn't been around lately. I'm not sure of any others that have gone that route but I'm sure someone else out there has done it.
 
Our Hex hatch has been weak. Have not started to fly fish at my new homestead yet, will start in the spring. Apparently my new neighbor is a well known fly rod guy, Bob Summers.
 
RainX works great on our modern era vehicles but they go significantly faster and have somewhat aerodynamic designs so the water flows up and to the sides, seldom need to use wipers unless it's a frog drowner. RainX doesn't work as well on barn doors. ed
 
Our Hex hatch has been weak. Have not started to fly fish at my new homestead yet, will start in the spring. Apparently my new neighbor is a well known fly rod guy, Bob Summers.


Nice! A bamboo guy also! Win win for you.
 
Our Hex hatch has been weak. Have not started to fly fish at my new homestead yet, will start in the spring. Apparently my new neighbor is a well known fly rod guy, Bob Summers.

Bob is a very interesting man. Any chance you met Mike Winkler ? ed
 
Added rear wiper pull results to my post above. .9 - 1.0 lbs.
 

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