Quote:
Originally Posted by Hydratech®
Just to poke at you a little, your rendering does not show exposed wipers 
Form follows function in my book - seeing a wiper motor under hood certainly isn't out of place. I'm following your build, certainly not leading it. Yeah, a nice clean close out panel where the wiper motor used to live would look trick when you are standing around with guys admiring your engine compartment, and I get the whole cool concept of the RainGear hidden wiper system, but too bad they don't have the hide away park function (yet).
It has been many years since I have had my hands on an A body, though I remember removing the panel at the base of the windshield on a few to clean out a bunch of leaves and gook accumulated in there, recalling there was a rather large amount of glass covered by this plate (it was always dirty as hell so I remember cleaning this area of the glass before putting the plate back on). Just spit balling here, but what if you could talk to RainGear about possibly increasing the swept area in motion, which would allow you to retain a full wipe of the windshield but have the wipers drop down to that lower area of the windshield that is usually covered by that large base plate while in motion. That way when you shut them off, they will sit down out of view as if they were the "upscale parking hide away type" when off, or at least a lot lower. This would require a modification of the wiper linkage geometry to increase the overall swept area, or splitting the difference of how far upward they will wipe. This would also likely lead to a custom shortened windshield base plate, or even it's complete omission. Today's modern urethane used when installing windshields is so strong that you can omit the little windshield base tabs once the urethane has set 24 hours - that windshield isn't going anywhere once it is placed. Again, just thinking out loud as to alternate ways to possibly have your cake and eat it too. I haven't taken a close look at the RainGear arrangement, though believe there must be an arm on an electric motor running the linkages. If this arm on the electric motor was lengthened by a small amount, it should increase the wiper swept area. The engineer in me just can't stay contained - I always have to rethink most everything I touch to improve it one way or another. Great for some things, but not good when the wife is saying "what in the world is taking so long" 
Or? RainX the windshield consistently and think less about wiper actions / travel. It's inevitable that you will eventually get caught out in a rain storm as this is a real car that will be really driven.
Things that make you go hmmm.... |
Thanks Paul, looking at all options now other than Raingear (due to budget).