Windshield Wiper Reversal? How Come No One Seems to do it?
 

A couple of years ago I purchased Waynes "101 projects" book and loved the idea of getting those wipers out of view...so I proceeded through all the steps, and am prepared to reconnect the battery and try it out...sans wipers for the trial run to save the paint! What baffles me is that while perusing the insane amounts of pictures posted on this forum of all of your modified 911's, I have rarely/never seen a picture of a car with the wipers reversed. Is this going to work, or not? I must admit, I have had difficulty understanding the theory behind the process, and I will be completely shocked if it works, but I am starting to question it if no one else has done it. It seemed like such a clever modification, and considering that I live in Los Angeles, windshield wiper use is a rare occurrence! Any thoughts?

A couple of people on here have. Just not that big a deal to most of us.

I must say, the idea of reversing the wipers never occured to me. They never cramped my sight in any way - despite my being far from tall. All pros and cons considered, I can´t imagine the factory placed them where they are without thinking it threw.

But perhaps I am missing something ?

Wiper reversal
 

Here you go! I really like it like this. When sitting low in the car, not having to look through them is nice.
-Whttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1192646165.jpg

Well Markus ~ I'm not sure why, but I laughed pretty hard at your response...

Now that it has been presented as a possibility, are you the kind of person that will do it just because

a. it can be done, and
b. it hasn't?

I fall (hard) into that category...:D

arerrac ~ That's what I'm talking about!

As have many before you during the last years. I suspect it has to do with my durn for'ner´s way of expressing myself. :D

There's a couple of threads here on how to do it, but it's never bothered me in the slightest.

Read a thread from someone driving long-distance who said that when the wipers are placed on the other side (he'd done it), that, even after it's finished raining, water blowing up the driver's side of the windscreen from the hood is an issue which the wipers being parked on the factory side would have prevented...

If it doesn't rain where you are, just take them off altogether :)

Actually did that in sunny California. Never carried my top OR wipers most of the time n my old 69 targa.

Can't quite pull that off in Texas, how some ever...:D

I've been thinking about this mod for awhile. I don't really get bothered by the view obstruction, but rather in the way the wipers work.

When the wipers move they first rotate to the right, wiping the screen, then move back to the left, and in doing so, they leave a spray of water on the windshield behind them. I most notice this when using the intermittent function; I have to wait for the next cycle to clear it, but then it happens all over again...

I plan on doing this at some point, but one of the requirements is that (at least one) of the the wiper arms must be bent to accomplish it, so I thought I'd procure a spare first to experiment on, and I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Good luck with it and let us know how it goes,

ianc

...good point, well taken for those who are unfortunate enough to have to drive in the rain often...

which isn't me...:cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:

...that being said, It's probably not wise to remove them entirely...on the odd chance that I'll need them once or twice a year...;)

I don't remember seeing that in Waynes' book...now I'm going to have to crack it open again....

I was thinking about doing it, but decided against it after watching what happens on the passenger side in the rain. Water that gets pushed across to the passenger side on the first part of the wiper cycle is what gets blown up the windscreen when the wipers return. It would drive me nuts, so I decided against reversing them.

Years ago a friend of mine had an old MG that he removed the wipers from and only used rain-x. Seemed to work for him and this was in Singapore where it rains a lot - and I mean a lot.

I did it because my wipers seemed way high(and I wanted to do a project from the book I thought I could do). Wiper part went smoothly. The only ball up was one of my AC tubes basically vaporized when I moved it, and I can't find a replacement. And I live In LA, CA so I have only used them once since I did it. Hey, you can always move them back!

Correct! You do get some water blowing up once you turn them off. Never been a problem for me, but it does happen. I also use Rain-X so the overall effect isn't bad at all.

Also, no need to bend the wiper arm, it's that you need to take the bend OUT of the wiper arm.

I just never saw the point. I guess at 5'10" (not particularly tall) I never had any problems seeing out the windshield. Also, I like things pretty original.

I just have been to busy redoing the suspension, engine, shaving rain gutters, making the roll cage... :)

I thought about doing this when I bought my targa. Then, I started noticing the "bigger fish" that needed attention and this project quickly fell to the bottom of my list. Now, with my coupe, the wiper motor and/or switch are toast, so once again I have "bigger fish".

I did it... at 5'8" it kinda bugged me.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1192656273.jpg

+1

also learned how to add more smilies today...http://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...ys/drummer.gif

Mike,
That is a very clean looking ride. I especially like the orientation of your wipers. :) Here are my right-leaning wipers.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1192659315.jpg

I can't say the rubbers have met rain yet since the conversion (So. Cal).

Sherwood

I did it, it's very easy mod, bending the wiper arm is not worth worrying about (unless you're concerned with destroying a classic, original, peed-on-by-Porsche piece of metal), and it works especially well if you 86 the passenger-side wiper and cap the splined shaft.

No fear of feng shui repercussions??:D

I reversed mine. I like it a lot better. I'm only 5'8" so it made a nice improvement in view for me. I rarely drive in the rain though. I bent the wiper arm the opposite direction so they lay flat the way they should.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1192661099.jpg

I've always wanted to switch mine and I think I will this winter while the car is in the garage...

I did it. In addition to the view improvement, the driver side blade works a little better at clearing the water. The rubber doesn't get deformed by resting on the curved part of the windshield.

These guys did it.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1192663726.jpg

wipers
 

I took the lazy route. I lowered the drivers side down as much as it could go then removed the passenger side and capped the wiper stub. makes a bit of a difference and took 3 min.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1192665043.jpg

I had the wipers on my old '88 reverse parked. I liked the cleaner view, but beyond that, there was an actual functional improvement.

With the wipers parked normally, when I drove in really, really humid/foggy weather I'd get a huge condensation spot on the outside of the windshield right in the middle of the driver's side. It would occur directly above where the wiper arm mounted to the wiper blade.

When I parked the wipers on the opposite side, the condensation spot relocated to the pass side of the windshield.

So in my book, the mod is a good one.

With my non-standard dimensions (6'3" but with a 30" inseam - yup, they call me Tommy Torso) , the wipers don't present a problem, but I sure would appreciate some visors that wrap around the upper windshield frame.

I always seem to install the 2 arms backwards (or swapped). The center arm lays down to the rubber when you do this, and the other one is way outta the way. That's my contribution to 101 projects.

Oh, and if you have 2 of the bent arms (or bend one yourself) it's near perfect.

At 6'-4" I'm the rip the sun visers out kinda guy; but hey if it were the other way around I'd be all over that one! Just makes good common sense?

Now for those that have done it; does it make any diff in the rain?

My best SWAG is that most Pelicans have never seen a '67, or
any attention to the wipers' parking position ... or headlamps, for that matter!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/65942-1967-car-driver-911s-test.html?highlight=1967+911s+test

http://www.pelicanparts.com/ultimate...11Scover-s.jpg

It's a cool mod for sure, but I've always just pulled the wipers off and ran with a good heavy application of RainX--- It helps that I'm in So Cal. Here's a shot of
my " no wiper" '74 that I just sold.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1192680669.jpg

Milt ~ So you're saying that you intentionally swap the arms, and that it ended up being a better solution...I will give it a shot, and start bending 'em like Beckham...

Works on my car...it rarely (almost never) sees rain, anyway.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1192718060.jpg

rdrr, spuggy,

You hit it right on. Porsche moved the wipers from parking on the passenger’s side to the driver’s side in ’68 to have the first swipe clear the windscreen. This is particularly important if you are suddenly splashed with muddy water or slush from oncoming traffic.

To properly make the change, one wiper arm is the same (straight) regardless of which side it parks on. The other wiper (bent end) is different depending on which side it parks on (LHD vs. RHD).

Bill (silverc4s), last Friday Milt brought his 911 Carrera to our little gathering in El Segundo, CA. “It Never Rains in Sunny Southern California.” Guess what. It rained and the wipers were at home. :D

Best,
Grady

Yep. I'm guilty. And what a stupid surprise because the typical CA rain is more of a steady drizzle that just beads up and stays there.

"So you're saying that you intentionally swap the arms, and that it ended up being a better solution...I will give it a shot, and start bending 'em like Beckham..." Uber, I don't bend anything. By swapping, the center one lays down right on the rubber. The other is parked at an angle. You just have to be sure they don't hit each other (which they won't if you do it logically).

OK, time to go to work...

LOL http://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...leys/loki5.gif

Been there, Done That! It's amazing how impossible it is to drive without wipers! Who da thunk? :rolleyes:

Actually, the very early 911's did park the wipers on the right. Porsche made the switch to parking on the left, saying it had something to do with vision in light rain when the wipers were off.

+1

And a close second:

I bought three cars in the US, one in CA and two in WA. Not one of them had a functional windscreen washer system, and it was the thing that bugged me the most until I fixed it. Pet peeve...

Otherwise you'd prety much have to wait until the screen got good and wet before you could use the wipers, or it'd just smear horribly. Dodgy.