Avanti Wiper Question

[wcortesi]

Something I've been wondering since I've started looking into these, and forgive me if it's been addressed before!
Why are the wipers apparently mounted for a RHD car? The sweep from left to right, unlike almost any other American car I can think of.
It's unique, but it doesn't make much sense.

[studegary]

I do believe that they were styled after British cars, Jaguar in particular.
I always thought that this was strange and didn't like it.

[Gunslinger]

It never really made sense to me either. Maybe it was a cost and ease of production issue that the decision was made upon.

[wcortesi]

I have a feeling Gary is probably right, it makes it look more "European" but doesn't make much sense!

[kurtruk]

Let's consider the offset hood bulge. You know, the one that continues right throught the windshield and to the dash pod. If the wipers had been "conventionally" mounted, the left one would have been mounted UP on this raised area. That brings several issues in to play, e.g. blade length, angle of park position, etc. Mounting them the way they did avoided all that.
Whaddaya say?

[Corvanti]

Let's consider the offset hood bulge. You know, the one that continues right throught the windshield and to the dash pod. If the wipers had been "conventionally" mounted, the left one would have been UP on this raised area. That brings several issues in to play, e.g. blade length, angle of park position, etc. Mounting them the way they did avoided all that.
Whaddaya say?

i'll go with that reasoning - until someone can come up with documentation to prove otherwise.

[SN-60]

To: kurtruk,--- No doubt...Your 100% correct on this!

[Rerun]

Let's consider the offset hood bulge. You know, the one that continues right throught the windshield and to the dash pod. If the wipers had been "conventionally" mounted, the left one would have been mounted UP on this raised area. That brings several issues in to play, e.g. blade length, angle of park position, etc. Mounting them the way they did avoided all that.
Whaddaya say?

The left wiper arm goes up and over the bulge. There is sufficient room to have put the pivot point on the outside of the bulge, using an arm that would be a mirror image of the existing one. The right side wiper could then be mirrored and moved in, resulting in a more conventional coverage that included the driver's line of sight. The sweep of the driver's wiper would need to be less than 90 degrees because of the inward slope of the side windows. The passenger side sweep would need to be greater than 90 degrees for proper overlap. This makes the linkage a bit trickier, but doable.

However, given Studebaker's approach to design, this configuration probably resulted from a surplus of right-hand wiper arms that had to be used up!

[LarkTruck]

Something I've been wondering since I've started looking into these, and forgive me if it's been addressed before!
Why are the wipers apparently mounted for a RHD car? The sweep from left to right, unlike almost any other American car I can think of.
It's unique, but it doesn't make much sense.

Given the enormous task the engineering guys had in such a short amount of time, and budget in mind, I think their choice worked without a lot of thought.
JS

[edpjr]

Try to find a left and right hand original chrome plated Avanti wiper arm set. Out of all the hundreds of items I've replaced on my '63, finding original wiper arms was the absolute hardest.

[wcortesi]

I'll keep that in mind if I ever find a car!

[SN-60]

Try to find a left and right hand original chrome plated Avanti wiper arm set. Out of all the hundreds of items I've replaced on my '63, finding original wiper arms was the absolute hardest.

Just put a NOS set on My '63, but I agree if I had to replace these it would be difficult!

[Gunslinger]

Studebaker International and Jon Myers are now carrying new repops of the Avanti wiper arms. Not exactly cheap, but repopping anything isn't inexpensive in and of itself. That doesn't help when you've previously done a long search for a set.

[Deaf Mute]

I found a twisted Avanti wiper arm in Lancaster & have it straightened out... JUST IN CASE..........