I need a measurement

[RICH MUISE]

Hey guys, If someone could help me out I'd sure appreciate it. I need someone with an up and running 57 to measure the sweep angle of the windshield wipers for me. I posted this in an older topic but I guess no one saw it. It doesn't need to be super accurate. I checked the sweep angle on what I hope to be the donor car with a clear plastic protractor. Thanks Rich

[Frankenstein57]

Rich, maybe you can be a little more direct at what you are looking for. Are you talking about a level on the cowel, and what angle the wipers are on the windshield?  I hope to get to the shop this weekend, gotta get that car home.  Mark

[RICH MUISE]

Mark...sorry, I guess I wasn't as clear as I thought I was. Hopefully I can clear it up. what I am looking for is how far the wiper blade rotates, in degrees, from park position to where the blade stops and goes back. If I'm still not making sense I'll draw a diagram and post it. Thanks for the trouble. The reason I'm asking is I'm changing over to a wiper system with hard rods to replace the cable and pulley system, and the length of the solid brackets that will be welded to the pivot posts in place of the pulleys determine the angle of sweep. Not having my car up and running I don't know what the angle of sweep is suppose to be for the 57 as compared to the car I took it off so I don't know if I need to adjust for more sweep, less sweep, or leave as is. Thanks, Rich

[JPotter57]

Save yourself some engineering and weld in the inner cowl section from a `58, use `58 wiper transmissions and rods, motor assembly.  It's a lot easier than trying to reinvent the wheel.  Find a decent `58, butcher it out, transplant the whole thing back into your `57 cowl.  Easy one day swap

[tarheel57]

Using the 58 setup is also what i used,worked great and easy.only had to cut and modify my defrost vents.

[RICH MUISE]

If you remember the post I had going on "strange windshield wiper poroblem"... my whole reason for using the 97 mustang wiper motor was to be able to use the wiper controls on the 97 mustang steering column in my car. The guys at Ron Francis told me the only way I could do that was to use the mustang wiper motor also. Anyway, I now have the Mustang wiper motor and wiring to tie it into the steering column and have already started to install it. Motor will be on the inside of the cowl, accessible from under the dash after I get done cutting and welding the new configuration. I have everything worked out to make the new setup work even having to switch directions of passeger wiper. I'm adapting the 57 pivots to solid arms rather than pulleys.
If no one reinvented the wheel we'd never have gotten radials, and besides this is the kind of stuff I enjoy doing.
Another benifit will be intermittent control which, in my daily drivers, I seem to use more often than constant motion, and it gets it completly off my firewall..no heater, no hoodlatch,no wiper motor. I'll be welding in a panel to replace the sunken-in area where the latch and wiper were...fill in unused holes and she should be smooth all the way across.

[KidKourier]

Rich,  On the drivers side starting at the base of the windshield rubber (9 o'clock position) goes just past 1 o'clock position so that's about 100 to110 degrees (ballpark figure) but doesn't go past the start of the curve of the windsheild. Hope this helps! KID

[RICH MUISE]

Kid, thanks...that's what I needed. I think I'm pretty close on the rotation to where I need to be without having to cut out more of the cowl. (The wiper pivots are tucked up in the corner pretty close, but after notching the Mustang connector bar, I think I have enough pivoting). I've had to change access point to the wiper motor from under the dash to the firewall because they'll be just too much in the way from the inside, but other than that the set up is going well. I'll now have to have a removeable panel on the firewall. Thanks, Rich