As I get closer to getting my 1927 Tudor up and running, I'm looking into getting a 6-volt electric wiper to replace the vacuum-operated one that is currently on the car. The baffles inside the old Trico wiper have gone bad and it hasn't worked since I bought the car. I've heard that the vacuum-type wiper do not work all that great.

I realize that I could go without or get a hand-operated one, but I live on the west side of Washington (there is a vast difference between the east and west side), where there is traffic and the rain can come at a moment's notice. I'd rather be safe and enjoy my car. Any recommendations on products/companies before I go and spend any money? Thanks.

- Jim

If you must, the easiest way to get something that is not as big as a house [but still bigger than a Trico] is to look into what others have done to the Model A to have 'electric' wipers.

http://www.mikes-afordable.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=A17508 SS6&Category_Code=1121

would be a good place to start...they make 6v and 12v models

Thanks George - must appreciated!

Whoops - typo - "Most appreciated!"

Wipers ... We don't need no stinking wipers

Tough - up Jim ... It doesn't rain very much or very often here in Pudget Sound Hardly at really (LOL)

Be_Zero_Be

Why they invented Rain-X:

Lucas wiper motors.

There's a place called Ficken Wiper Service that rebuilds those Trico motors. I've heard nothing but good about them on the Hudson forum. I don't know because I took the Trico motor out of my Hudson, was going to send it to them but figured it was cheaper just to not drive in the rain.

I can testify to the efficiency of Trico motors. They work fine, as long as you're going downhill. Our family car until I was 13 was a 1941 Plymouth, so I became acquainted with vacuum wipers at an early age. Anytime the engine has to work, the wipers don't. In 1978 I bought a 1939 Packard and got reacquainted with vacuum wipers. When I rebuilt the Trico motor it worked better than before, but was still a Trico motor. The remarkable thing is that my 1951 Dodge pickup has electric wipers, but Packard didn't get around to electric wipers until their last year, 1956. If you want wipers that work, electric is the way to go.

Steve - I remember how it always seemed like it started to rain harder as you'd start going up a long hill! Boy! I hated those old vacuum wipers!

Don't have any specific dates, facts or data to back this up, but I was always of the opinion that Chrysler engineering from WWII and pretty much through the '50's and into the '60's was a cut above Ford and GM. I know that they had several "firsts" and electric wipers was one of them. (I think the alternator was another and something about power steering too.) And, in my "unqualified" opinion, I think the slant 6 was one of the best, or at least the most "durable" engines ever! But the one that really sticks out in my mind was the electric wipers. What a huge improvement!

My friend has a 1937 International 1/2 ton with facory electric wipers, or one wiper. I have a 47 & 49 Internationals. They have electric wipers, a motor for each side by American Bosch. One or both can be turned on at a time. I remember I had no date for the junior prom and it was raining. I couldn't drive my IHC because the roll out windshield leaked and you'd get wet from the waist down (but you could see out the windshield) I rode with my friend in his 50 GMC. The vacuum wipers didn't want to work at all. This was in 1996, we had the 2 oldest trucks in school. Maybe that's why we didn't have dates?

Harold,

Your story about Chrysler makes me think of something I heard many many years ago in a 'that about sums it up' way.

Chrysler was daring and engineering genius for the most part...

Ford knew how to take that engineering and figure out how to make it right...

GM waited til last, and then figured out how to 'sell' it

George - That DOES about sum it up! I like that.

And then there were the independents like Nash for example, that "traded" their superior "Weather Eye" heater to General Motors for GM's Hydra-matic!