Concealed wipers

[79cord]

After cutting up the cowl and wiper motor mounts of my car chasing rust, I want something to show for my efforts and was thinking of concealed wipers, and not just semi-concealed either.

Many US cars of the late '60's and '70's adopted a system that once stopped, would briefly run their motors in reverse to engage a mechanism that would extend their normal travel to drag them back further off the windscreen so they could be completely covered by the cowl panel.






Notice how it actually pulls them off the glass on this AMC Pacer so might be adopted to some cars without extending the windscreen as is usually done for more common semi-concealed wipers

Obviously these 'recessed park' motors are not to be commonly or cheaply found, so was wondering if anyone knew of something more modern with such a feature. I started wondering about SUV & wagons with opening rear windows where the wiper is mounted upon the body or tailgate that might also require such a system but could not think of anything specific. Ideas?

[Copey]

Our old Hyundai Santa Fe rear wiper ran on the window and then dropped onto the door when off to allow the glass to open, using one of those with some sort of connecting rods could work? Or use 2 motors depending on size/space? I am not sure the sweep would be enough to do a single conversion from memory

[adam73bgt]

I how brilliantly over engineered that top example is just to hide the wiper I may be wrong but I think my mates Lexus LS400's front wipers retracted further than the normal sweep when you turned the wipers off

[rusty998]

If I remember correctly the rover 800 has wipers that sit on the scuttle trim when not in use.

[rusty998]

The Honda legend does the same.

[levismerc]

And the montego I think?

[DWDarkWheels]

What a great bit of over-engineering, indeed.

Excuse my irreverent and non-constructive post, but Reliant sort-of failed, unless the aim was to wipe the rear bodywork, hence this nicely executed mod.

[Kierenbrown]

Sept 23, 2014 18:49:58 GMT levismerc said:

And the montego I think?

Correct!
Beat me to it though!

[Rich]

Nissan 300C. But the likelihood of finding a motor from one of those is a touch slim :/

[fr€$h&m1nt¥]

one of the seat leons have concealed wipers, i think it's the model before the current one but not too sure - i just noticed on one parked up once and thought they looked pretty cool.

[welshpug]

I think modern stuff just have massive screens ending well into the scuttle panel.

[goodoldluke]

Sept 24, 2014 7:55:47 GMT fr€$h&m1nt¥ said:

one of the seat leons have concealed wipers, i think it's the model before the current one but not too sure - i just noticed on one parked up once and thought they looked pretty cool.

The Altea has them but park up into the a pillar rather than down at the bottom. Nice solution though.

[jonw]

Sept 24, 2014 7:55:47 GMT fr€$h&m1nt¥ said:

one of the seat leons have concealed wipers, i think it's the model before the current one but not too sure - i just noticed on one parked up once and thought they looked pretty cool.

Is that the one where it conceled in the pillars? I did think that was a bit of good lateral thinking.

[fr€$h&m1nt¥]

Sept 24, 2014 8:06:21 GMT goodoldluke said:

Sept 24, 2014 7:55:47 GMT fr€$h&m1nt¥ said:

one of the seat leons have concealed wipers, i think it's the model before the current one but not too sure - i just noticed on one parked up once and thought they looked pretty cool.

The Altea has them but park up into the a pillar rather than down at the bottom. Nice solution though.

ah that's where they were hiding

[fr€$h&m1nt¥]

Sept 24, 2014 8:17:34 GMT jonw said:

Sept 24, 2014 7:55:47 GMT fr€$h&m1nt¥ said:

one of the seat leons have concealed wipers, i think it's the model before the current one but not too sure - i just noticed on one parked up once and thought they looked pretty cool.

Is that the one where it conceled in the pillars? I did think that was a bit of good lateral thinking.

i see what you did there.

[smurf]

Look at the rear wiper on a hilux surf, the motor stops and then retracts the blade under the spoiler onto a small puck

[79cord]

Some promising ideas there. I'm still favoring front wiper setups to ensure multiple speed & intermittent options as well as multiple wipers. So Legend & Lexus sounded hopeful, though I cannot find other mentions to confirm that they park outside their normal range of motion which would be my requirement, though I will check further. Not discounting rear wiper motors though.
Since I would have to relocate wiper pivot points & need different wiper arms to suit I even took a look at some of Mercedes extendable mono-wiper setups. Though they are rather bulky.

Definitely would have to hide that!

[fr€$h&m1nt¥]

As mentioned above regarding the bonnets being longer - could you weld an extra panel at the rear edge of the bonnet that curves up over the wipers?

You might need to do something with the hinges so it doesn't clash when you open the bonnet though unless it's a forward tilting bonnet.

[79cord]

I'm really liking the wow factor of the top Corvette image too, with a moveable cover and no indication of were the wipers are hiding, whilst also retaining the original 'factory' appearance.
So I would be happy to hinge a spring-loaded cowl cover for the wipers to push their way through when in use; another advantage of the parked position being outside the normal range of motion so it would not be opening/closing at each swipe of the wiper(s).

Might mount it to the end of the front hinged bonnet anyway though.



As said had to cut free my cowl panel to access and remove a badly rusted full-width reinforcement & wiper-motor mount in the Plenum, and numerous holes beneath that in the plenum itself. So I need to make up a new & hopefully stronger and less rust prone reinforcement which could also mount new wipers & motor, though should also compensate for removal of the outer cowl panel, to be assisted by bonding in the windscreen. Hopefully the original drainage of the plenum could accommodate the increased water volume, though more could be added.

[Copey]

how about doing a flip up panel using an actuator from some pop up headlights for it?