Bending Wiper Arms

[phileas_fogg]

For those of you who have successfully bent your wiper arms to match the angle of the bottom of your wind shield, please let me know how you did it. How did you orient the arms in the vice? Did you use heat? How did you know it was “hot enough”? How hard did you bump with the hammer? Any other tips or tricks?

I've tried to bend those arms twice now with no joy. I clamped the arm horizontally in a vice & bumped it with a hammer as described by edwardb in his build thread, and I heated the arm with a heat gun hot enough to give myself a blister when I touched it…No movement at all. I will probably try again after I get my license tags, but for now bending those arms requires WAY more force than I’m comfortable applying.


John

IMG_4996 by jhsitton, on Flickr

[edwardb]

Sounds like you need to use more heat. I didn't torch the metal until it was red. But would have done more than just leave a blister if touched. The process I used was to put the end of the wiper in the vise horizontally, with the point where it needed to bend at the corner of the vise jaws. Then used my propane torch to heat the bend location. Then used a hammer to hit on the outside of where it needed to bend, with my left hand on the wiper pulling in the direction of the bend. I'm obviously right handed. I didn't have any trouble getting the needed bend on both sides, with more needed on the RH side same as your picture shows. For me typically took several bend attempts to get it just right. But once you have it close, doesn't need to be heated to move a little. The heating slightly discolored the metal, but polished out using a buffing wheel.

[Jeff Kleiner]

I've done exactly the same as Paul.

Jeff

[seagull81]

Can you pull the arm and move it down one spline?

[phileas_fogg]

Can you pull the arm and move it down one spline?

Not without the rubber hitting the chrome during the sweep.


John

[GFX2043mtu]

Bend each one in several steps checking to make sure you don’t over do it. I have a set of soft aluminum jaws for my vice and I used a little heat from a torch pen and bent mine. Also when your done before you lock them down on the wiper box cycle the wipers with them half way on and wipers on them. You’ll find that they don’t return to where you initially set them. This step will prevent you from struggling to get them back off to re-index them.