Sadly, progress has been slow the last few weeks. Between traveling for work meetings and a 6 day work week, all I have time for is day dreaming and scribbling down design ideas during lunch. Plus, I had to unexpectedly install a new furnace in the house this week. That was $5000 directly out of my engine fund
On a positive note, I have a rough design for the wiper mechanism. Unfortunately, the passenger side of the Fiero dash structure is subdivided from the rest of the HVAC air box so there is going to be a little more metal to remove to allow the linkage to pass through to the new passenger side wiper pivot.
Once I have the 3D model of the mechanism finished, I'll post my design. Thanks for standing by.
Sadly, progress has been slow the last few weeks. Between traveling for work meetings and a 6 day work week, all I have time for is day dreaming and scribbling down design ideas during lunch. Plus, I had to unexpectedly install a new furnace in the house this week. That was $5000 directly out of my engine fund
On a positive note, I have a rough design for the wiper mechanism. Unfortunately, the passenger side of the Fiero dash structure is subdivided from the rest of the HVAC air box so there is going to be a little more metal to remove to allow the linkage to pass through to the new passenger side wiper pivot.
Once I have the 3D model of the mechanism finished, I'll post my design. Thanks for standing by.
How dare life get in the way of our fun !
I know your pain, i had to drop $5k of my fun money on a very similar situation to yours a couple of weeks back.
I finally got to sit down and finish my first draft of the wiper mechanism. As noted earlier in the thread, I am using an extended windshield on this build which will essentially cover the existing Fiero wipers. Thus, they have to be moved to a new loaction. Basically the drivers side wiper pivot will move directly forward a few inches and the passenger side wiper pivot will move forward and to the right to mirror the drivers side. This means that the wipers will be required to pivot towards each other ( a-la-mini van style). This also means that the passenger side wiper will have to move in reverse direction as apposed to the stock Fiero. To accomplish this, I redesigned the linkage so that there is an intermediate pivot arm located where the stock passenger wiper pivot was located. This additional pivot gave me the desired direction change.
Here are a few screen shots from different angles. Note the wiper mechanism currently is shown in mid sweep position for clarity of the drawings.
My plan for fabrication is to reuse the stock Fiero wiper pivots and rework the pivot arm shapes. The stock linkages have ball joints that are rivited to the linkages and so are not suitable for reuse. I've sourced some nice little ball pivot joints that allow for up to 37 deg of misalignment, are stainless steel and have little rubber dust boots. For the linkages, I've got some 3/8" x 0.049" wall stainless tubing that is plenty stiff and matches the ball pivot joints perfectly. While the drawings show the basic design, there are a number of things that still have to be worked out. First, I've drawn the mechanism in essentially a horizontal plane, however, in reality the front cowl area of the Fiero is anything but flat. Also, I have to mock up the linkages in the car and check for clearances for the moving linkages. Again, that front cowl area is a minefield of odd shapes and compartments. The hardest will be the passenger side as there appears to be more sheet metal ducting related to the hvac system I suspect.
I'll update again once I have the linkages mocked up similar to the drawings.
After previewing the update I see that the pivots are not that easy to see so I'll add a couple close up shots of them.
Here is the new wiper mechanism located in relation to the extended windshield. I still have to finalize the shape and orientation of the pivot lever arms to prevent binding and interference with the front cowl structure.
I continued work on the new wiper linkage this week once I had gathered up the bits and pieces I needed.
As I noted earlier, I am replacing the stock linkages with 316 SS tubing that is 3/8" OD x 0.049" wall. Its plenty stiff for the this duty. I am also using the 316 SS ball pivot joints for the ends of each linkage. I purchased some 316 SS 1/4" - 28 x 1 1/2" bolts which I removed the heads and then inserted them into the ends of the tubing linkages. They are a perfect fit and once I have finalized everything, I'll tig them in place.
They screw into the pivot joints and I added 2 thin jam nuts to help keep it all tight once installed.
For the center linkage pivot arm, I used a length of 316 SS 1" x 1/4" flat bar. I used a small sealed bearing (SKF 627 RS) and fabricated a support from a piece of 1" x 0.065" wall SS tubing. For the picture, I fitted a 1/4" bolt through the bearing but I'll have to machine a proper fitting bolt to fit the inner race. Once its all complete, I'll tig the bearing sleeve to the pivot arm.
I mocked up the entire linkage assembly just to see how it looks. The linkage rods are a few inches too long at this stage. Once I have everything finalized, I'll post the final linkage dimensions.
Here is a picture showing the stock drivers side wiper pivot and the new loaction. The outline of the extended windshield can be seen as the black marker line. Clearly, the stock location was going to be under the new windshield.
The next step will be to fabricate mounting plates for the wiper pivots so that they can be secured to the sheet metal. The reason for the mounting plates is that the stock location for the pivot was reinforced and the new loaction is just thin sheet metal. Here is a rendering of the mounting plate with the pivot mounted through it. I'll fabricate these from 1/8" aluminum plate and powdercoat them black.
Nice work Graham. Have you chosen your wiper arms yet? The stock Fiero arms obviously won't be long enough, as I'm sure you realize. Before you inextricably integrate the old Fiero wiper hub assemblies into your design, it might be wise to make sure that any new wiper arms have the same spline size and count as the Fiero hubs.
A couple items for you to think about when putting this together. I like the rod ends as well. I think I will be looking for those vs. the ones I used on my setup.
1. wiper arms. I was not able to find wiper arms that fit the Fiero hubs. I took the Fiero wiper arms and unhooked the spring and pulled the arms out of the bases. I then got some Neon wiper arms and took the arms out of the Neon bases. I mated the Neon arms into the Fiero bases and needed to drill a hole in the end of the Neon arm for the spring and also a hole into the arm to allow a rivet to go through everything to hold it in place. The Neon arms work perfectly and put the wiper connector in the middle of the screen height wise. I then bought 26" wipers to fit to the new arms.
2. When locating the hubs and the cross over arms, you may well find equipment in the way such as A/C dryer etc. I ended up with some bent arms on my setup to go around all the trunk equipment. That is where your rod ends will be better than mine where the rubber pieces will keep the arms up where they need to be where mine hang down.
3. The new locations of the wiper hubs will be outside the window screen tray. be aware though that the screen tray now covers your cowl inlets so there will be a deficit of air availability into the HVAC unit. I ended up cutting some 3" holes into teh cowl sides on the outside of the cowl area, just outside the hubs and welded in a 3" tube with screen over it on each side to provide some inlet air as well as keep water out for the inevitable wet days you get caught in.
4. I had to move my wiper motor over to the passenger side as well as there wasn't enough room to leave it where it was with my setup. Mine different than yours though as my passenger wiper is in the middle vs. the side like yours. I sealed up all the wiper holes in the cowl as well to keep the front trunk sealed off from the cowl.
5. I am not sure, but I think you are planning to push the passenger wiper arm though the cowl? If you are, you need to know there is a barrier over on the passenger side on the inside of where your arm will need to go to get to the passenger side hub. I ended up turning both my wiper hub arms around to be accessible in the front trunk to remove all mechanisms from the inner cowl. Once the tray is on there, you won't have any access to any of it as you seal the screen tray over the cowl as I stated above.
Have a look in my 288 GTO build thread on madmechanics if you are not sure what I am saying with anything above. I can also send pics if you need.
I am looking forward to seeing how you set it all up in the car.
Thanks for the input Blooz and Don. To be honest, I assumed the arm pivots had a somewhat " universal spline" atleast as far as GM products go. I was going to pop the wipers off my Colorado and see how they fit. I will make sure I have found a suitable arm and blade arrangement before finalizing the installation.
With regard to the location of the mechanism, I am planning on running them through the same location as the stock linkages. As well, my car has no air conditioning so I don't have anything inside the cowl. I am aware that the passenger side has a barrier and I am just working on a way to gain access, similar to the drivers side. There is a nice big access panel on the drivers side from inside the dash.
My plans for getting more air into the hvac plenum is to duct the 355 front hood vent through the front firewall. Again, I have no AC so there is not much there to get in the way.
I have mocked everything up and I don't think I'll have to move the wiper motor. One thing I do have to do but have not mentioned yet is to cut the stock pivot arms off and flip them over so that they are angled downward. The reason is that I am also rotating them 180 degrees from the stock position so that they are on the aft side of the pivot as apposed to the fwd side of the pivot which is stock. This is because I have to move them so far forward towards the front fire wall.
I'll check out your build Don and try to "borrow" some ideas.
Well, as Don had mentioned, there is a barrier / divider on the passenger side of the front air cowl that is blocking access to the revised passenger side wiper pivot location. But like most things on the Fiero chassis, once you identify the part you want to remove and locate the few strategic spot welds that GM thoughtfully used, it's just a matter of pursuading them to let go.
The divider is located inside the cowl just passed the depressed channel.
And here is the divider once its removed.
Now its wide open with lots of room for the passenger side wiper pivot.
On the drivers side of the cowl, there is a generous sized removeable panel behind the console that will provide access to the drivers side wiper pivot and linkages.
I need to make a similar access panel on the passenger side and there is lots of room for one.
Here is the linkage connected to the wiper motor arm. I shouldn't have to move the wiper motor as there is ample room for everything to rotate.
Here is the linkage connected to the drivers side wiper pivot. There is just enough room for the pivot arm to swing.......... I hope.
Ah, that is what the barrier looks like...... Nicely done. I just took a driver to it to make more room for the air to pass through from my air hole on the passenger side.
Your response about the wiper blades, I understand but honestly, it took me 20 minutes to make new wiper arms using the Fiero bases and Neon arms. You will spend more time looking at cars ina pick and pull than that to find similar bases and then most likely have to rework the arms anyway as they won't be perfect lengths etc..... Just a thought.
The other thing to think about when doing the extended screen and the wipers inside the cowl is your defroster vent setup. With the wiper arms inside the cowl, you might be restricted in how far forward you can move your defroster vents with the extended screen tray. I made new defroster vents that fit in the cowl and were up near the front of the screen to get full coverage on the screen. Not a huge issue but everyone I have talked to that put the defroster vent more or less where the stock Fiero defroster vent goes, says that the lower half of the screen never fully clears from any moisture if you get out there. The fact that you are most likely driving these on nice, dry days, won't give you any grief but just more thoughts I went through as I finished off the extended screen setup and wipers.
Keep up the great work guys as these are coming out beautifully.
I have certainly considered your idea of modifying the stock wiper arms. I wanted to have a look at them before I commented. I agree that is much easier to do than search high and low for alternatives. As well, if the wiper arm pivots are unique to the Fiero, that will be a big problem.
Considering I have removed my roof and have no plans for a soft top, the need for wipers, HVAC, window defrosters, etc is probably minimal. Truth be known, I'm just looking for things to do until Blooz finishes his rear suspension so we can get going on the bodies ha-ha
[This message has been edited by Yarmouth Fiero (edited 01-26-2014).]
I have been giving lots of thought to the question regarding a suitable wiper arm and blade combination for the extended windshield and modified wiper arm positions. The stock Fiero wiper blade is 18" and mocking up the arms based on the new pivot locations, it appeared a 24" blade would certainly fit. Just for curiousity sake, I ran over to Canadian Tire and bought a 24" economy wiper blade. Here are the results using the stock wiper arms with the upgraded 24" blades. I swept both arms while tracing the blade tips with a Sharpie. Considering that my car will probably see very little rain and in Yarmouth, you're more likely to get hit with Seagull splatter, I think the blade upgrade might just do the trick.
I agree Fieroguru, that is still untested as of yet. I just got my animation upgrade for Rhino, so as soon as I get time to learn it, I'll hopefully be able to add the animation to my designs.
Well the year is almost over and I figured I better get a new post entered before the holidays. I'm still fabricating components for the new wiper arrangement and its been a slow process. I made the new mounting plates for the wiper pivots using 316 SS plate but I was not happy with the quality so they found a home in the scrap bucket. I made a second set out of aluminum plates and I am happy with how they turned out. Here are a couple pics. I used nylock nuts but I think I'll swap them for acorn nuts.... just for cosmetic reasons. I'll add lock washers as well.
With the pivots mounted, I can now finalize the linkage lengths and get the whole thing installed and tested. Fingers crossed that it doesn't bind or vibrate.
I know... I know......... I have not been fulfilling my duties to keep things progressing and my followers up to date. Anyone else find the month of December went by way to fast?
On a good note, work is very busy and bidding a project that would keep us going to 2018. Unfortunately, it has the same effect on the project car.
The wiper mods are proving to be a little more challenging since the passenger side cowl doesn't have near the room for my linkages as the drivers side so I'm working to " open things up". The wiper mechanism is complete and the mounting plates are out for powdercoating.
I also have material on hand to build the lower mounting flange for the extended windshield. I'm going to use 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 1/8" angle, with one flange almost removed so that when I roll it into the desired arc, it will lay back to match the slope of the windshield glass. Also, since most of the original hvac cowl openings are now going to be inside the extended windshield, I'll be fabricating covering plates to seal things up.
Once it warms up enough for the fluorescent lights to come on in my garage, I'll get some updated photos.
Thanks for standing by and I hope everyone has a prosperous and healthy 2014.
OK, OK... what are your excuses this month? You could make any of those South of the border believe that it was too cold to work in the shop, except I know better. It's been above freezing for two straight weeks now. So where's the progress? Hmmm? Poke poke...
Finally, the first weekend in months that we aren't traveling the province for high school hockey tournements or working. Sorry for the slow progress.
The wiper pivot plates are powdercoated and I test fitted them to the front cowl. Unfortunately, there are alot of stainless steel fasteners visible but using the carriage bolts made it look a little less cluttered. Now I can cut the linkages to their final length and test the new wiper configuration for interference.
I have started on the fabrication of the new lower windshield support for the extended windshield. Most of the existing openings in the stock cowl will have to be covered as they will lie inside the extended windshield. With the slope of the new glass approximately 25 degrees, my plan was to cut down a 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 1/8" angle to 1 1/2" x 3/4" x 1/8" and then roll it to the shape of the lower edge of the glass. I wasn't happy with the results of the first attempt so I have decided to cut the two parts from 1/8" plate and weld them together for the desired angle and curvature. Here is a drawing of how I would like it to fit to the glass.
Btw... today it's 2 degree C in the garage Blooz so you are right.... no excuses there.
Today I made a cardboard template of the plate that will cover all the stock holes and openings in the lower windshield cowl. I have a nice sheet of stainless steel that I might make the covering plate out of since it will be hard to paint the underside once it's welded in place. I also laid out the curved plate that will form the lower edge of the windshield flange for the extended windshield. It certainly reaches forward a long way, almost to the front compartment.
Excellent! Bear in mind that a fairly thick portion of the windshield forward edge is done in black fader tape. I'll have to go measure to see how far up from the base of the windshield it goes, but as I recall it's a good 4" - 5" or so. That means you can probably bridge the top edge of your curved piece with another flat, horizontal crescent shaped section all the way over to the OEM windshield flange.
Thanks Blooz. I never considered to have a second surface under the glass. I think before I do the final welding, I may attempt to bring home a windshield to confirm the shape and location is correct. I think the yellow template we made was a pretty close match though.
Just for clarification, I am planning to put a vertical 3/4" x 1/8" flatbar along the entire length of the edge of the windshield mounting surface. For the picture I just used a short piece of flatbar to hold the part at the correct angle.
I forgot to measure the "frit" (weird word...to me, that's just French fry in French.) Anyways, the point I was trying to make earlier is that we'll need something to support the leading edge of the extended dash board to. Leaving it hollow between the OEM windshield mount and your new mount may make that difficult. Your thoughts?
Yes, I agree about not leaving a void that could cause a problem later. After reading your post again last night I suddenly realized what you meant by " horizontal crescent shaped section". Perhaps I could fill in part of the area with a horizontal plate or a series of longitudinal flat bars to offer support to the dash. I do need to keep the center area open for access to wiper pivot mechanism. I'll proceed with the cowl covering plate and the lower windshield mounting surface and then come up with a suitable solution to the issue you pointed out. Perhaps an elegant solution will present itself by then.
Looking nice. Remember that by the time the screen in in place, you will be very hard pressed to get access into the front curved section of the extended screen/dash. Keeping an access panel available for fixing the wiper mechanisms is a good idea, however, getting at it from the top may well be problematic. The angle, room under the screen in that area is pretty limited. Put the plastic screen template you have in place or even the screen and see how much hand/arm room you have to do any work on the mechanism pivot with it all in place and see whether it still works out. I don't think it will once the screen is in place if I remember correctly.
One suggestion is to create a plate in the centre of the front firewall from the cockpit side similar to what you did for the passenger side pivot, or do the same in the front trunk wall of the cowl.
Thanks for the input Don. I know exactly what you mean. The glass is going to be very low and close to the dash. From inside, all I have to reach is the nut on the top of the center pivot sticking up. For actual access to the pivot, your suggestion is spot on. When I open the front of the firewall to make the new air intake that will line up with the front hood vent, I am hoping there is enough room to get my fingers inside the cowl area. If not, I'll have to do something from the back side of the front firewall, although its pretty crowded with dash controls and supply ducting.
Well, I'm still chipping away at the task of covering up the front cowl to accomodate the extended windshield. I went with a piece of 16 gauge 316 stainless steel since it won't be easy to paint the underside of the sheet once its welded in place and it will be exposed to the damp Nova Scotia salt air as it passes through the hvac system. It was alot of work making it fit just right over the curves and bumps of the front cowl area. I'll make an accurate drawing / template of the finished plate incase anyone else decides to modify their cowl too.
With the cowl covering plate laying in place, I laid the lower windshield flange on top to give an idea of how it will look. That is my second attempt at the flange and it still needs tweeking........ or replacing with a third attempt.
Next step will be to get it all fitting exactly how I want it and then tack it in place. I'm still thinking about testing the shape with one of my extended windshields before final welding. At the moment, they are hibernating at Blooz's place for the winter. Just gotta find the time to get it all done before the spring. Still lots of High School hockey season left. Here's my youngest, #9, who you've seen throughout this thread, cutting hard for the net. GO VIKINGS!
edit: remove photo of family member
[This message has been edited by Yarmouth Fiero (edited 02-23-2015).]
