The 'E' Type Forum

I have converted my OTS to RHD, but I'm really wondering about the value of changing the wipers over. According to the topic below its a bit up in the air anyway, as well as the fact that LH wiper parking is the norm for a RHD car!! LH wiper parking gives a better sweep for the driver than the other way round, unless someone can convince me otherwise. Thoughts?.....

http://forum.etypeuk.com/viewtopic.php? ... ers#p98484

Absolutely. It's the giveaway that shows up a LHD conversion.

I thought you fellows never needed to use wipers, they're only for show
http://forum.etypeuk.com/viewtopic.php? ... er#p104934

Mine are for show...they are pretty hopeless

cactusman wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 22, 2019 5:19 pm

Mine are for show...they are pretty hopeless

Depends on equipment and usage. The best kit in the world will be pretty useless if used once or twice per annum in brief rain. Used on a long wet trip (i.e. expected home market use when new) they invariably get better as the screen gets the road film cleaned off and the oxidised rubber edge beds in. AKA the equipment is fundamentally fit for purpose even 50 years later, let alone by the standards of the time, but usage (non-usage) conditions have a big effect.

There is a fundamental shortcoming in that the driver side blade in a triple wiper setup rarely wraps fully around the outer curved screen. The same blade also tends to distort where the rubber presses against the sharp curve, but this usually settles down after 15 minutes of wet driving.

When I drove Angus’s bog standard silver grey coupe for a week I had several long wet trips, including that notoriously wet Revival. I was driving back up the A1M when it dawned on me i could see just as well as a modern card and it had the most effective wipers of any triple-arm E-type I’d ever driven, probably because they’d had the most frequent use. A brief summer sprinkle isn’t really a good test.

Well this means we must all stop this habit of only driving our cars in the dry.

I must admit my first drive when we collected our car included a long time in heavy rain and didn't feel that the wipers were inadequate. Though 64OTS does have a point that RHD cars do better with wipers parking to the left.

Geoff

Pete, I can confirm that the wipers on the original car work really well. I think this is due to the fact that the blades have been replaced with soft,modern refills using the original Aeramic carriers. Comparing the new Tex ones to the originals, the Tex ones don't flex as easily as the originals. I think this is the problem as the wiper stays straighter on the screen and doesn't follow the curves.

So which soft modern inserts do you use Angus and where do you get them?

Pete

From our local motor factors but I think the Halfords ones are the same