Ol John Lee reviews replacement Windshield Wipers

[Sharps40]

As you know, I was missing the original arm and blade assembly on the drivers side of Ol John Lee, (64 SBSS C10).

So, though I found an inexpensive way to install new cut to fit blades, I still wanted a drivers side wiper and arm that matched the OEM on the passenger side.

I ordered the arm and blade/wiper assembly from Classic Industries trucks.

Rateing Scale:

OEM Quality, It'll do, Piece of Poo.

I give the replacment assembly I got, a rateing of Piece of Poo for both parts.

1. The arm assembly came to me looking good till I saw the mount cup was plastic instead of chromed metal like the OEM on the drivers side. I figured okay, maybe it'll hold up.

2. The arm assembly tit that engages the hole in the blade to retain the blade on the arm is in the wrong spot. Only way to get the blade assembly to stay on the arm after crimping was to pull it off and add silicone and duct tape...after it came off the arm in traffic in the rain.....I did this job in the cab on the side of the road with my emergency tool kit.

3. The blade assembly consists of three bars, as the oem...however the upper and lower bars are shorter, flatter and do not provide sufficient pressure to force the middle of the blade against the glass....so the wipe was top and bottom only, no wipe in the middle of the blade where ya have to look at the road....all I could see was raindrops...scooted up straight and looke thru the 1" wide stripe of wiped glass at the top of the blade, till the blade fell off.

4. The blade assembly is very thin metal. Upon reinstallation, it had bent and the upper bar departed from the long center bar with the rubber blade. I stopped, got out the plyers and put the short upper bar back on the long center bar, bent the assembly so it put more pressure on the center of the rubber blade, crimped every folded piece of metal I could see with plyers and finally made the ride home safe, viewing now thru the clear center of the windshield with rain drops and smears on the top and bottom quarter of the wipers....It did not fall off or apart again after bending it and crimping it and I limped home to change back to the old blade/rubber and arm I'd foolishly left in the garage.

So, in the near future, junk yard runs to find a Drivers side OEM arm and blade assembly. I already know I can cut to fit modern blades for the OEM assembly and have them work perfect.

Thanks China, we love you to.

[MikeN]

I've been through this. All the reproduction wiper arm stuff is total crap. Left me stranded on the side of a two-lane road in total darkness during a driving rain storm. The only thing you can do is find some nice used OEM stuff.

[Sharps40]

Darn tootin. I'm heading for junk yards next weekend....gun range too. But junk yards first.

[jonathan-m]

I ordered mine from "classic parts", what used to be called Chevy Duty.

http://www.classicparts.com/Arms-Blades/products/211/

I've had those on my truck for the better part of five years with no issues at all, perfect fit. I don't get to use them much now that I live in the desert, but I was in Florida most of that time and I got a lot of good use out of those wipers.

[Clyde65]

jonathan,

This is where I purchased mine 20+ years ago, mine are like new....well except for the blades, they are new.