benjamin247

There's a hole in my firewall which looks like a part was there before (please see attached image). Can someone tell me what that was or if there is a plate I can buy to cover it up?

Ancient Iron

Wiper motor

MDchanic

Ha ha ha ha ha. You haven't noticed that you have no windshield wipers?

How long have you had this car? Is there a safety inspection in your state?

Do other important parts function? Headlights? Emergency brake? Speedometer?

- Eric

Octania

"Do other important parts function? Headlights? Emergency brake? Speedometer?"

ha ha ha ha ha

benjamin247

All those work. I bought this car knowing the wipers don't work since I won't be driving this car in the rain.

I'm trying to find a plate that would cover it, but can only find this one:
https://www.opgi.com/cutlass/1968/wi...otors/C240572/

Seems kind of expensive and would still have to fill in the smaller hole. Maybe I'll just get some heat shield tape and cover the hole with it.

droldsmorland

Jimmy Hoffas grave site

Allan R

Why not just install a proper wiper motor? Not planning to drive in the rain can be a very different story when a storm just pops up and you wish they worked. It also adds to the completeness of the car when you're showing it off.

MDchanic

You beat me to it, Allan.

Why not just fix the wipers?

I mean, it's not like having working windshield wipers in anyway interferes with the function or appearance of the car, and it may even save you a ticket, if you are driving through a state where cops are able to do spot safety inspections during traffic stops.

- Eric

hookem horns

Never know when mother nature will change plans. Use Rain-X in the meantime, slightly better than sticking your head out the window.

Allan R

IIRC the 68/69 wiper motors are the same. I don't think the 70-72 will work because they have a hidden wiper park feature. Should be the same wiper motor for Olds, Pontiac, Chev and Buick for that model and year application.

Suggestion - If you decide to go with a replacement motor, check with
Oldspackrat, Jensenracing77, 507OLDS, 2blu442, Olds442redberet. They part out these cars regularly and likely have the wiper motor just sitting waiting for a car to live in.

steverw

I agree, you have the wipers already. Why not just make them work if needed. It would be a pretty cheap fix, easy fix, and a functional fix. Your car would be more complete.

Ancient Iron

How does it pass a state inspection ???? Needs wipers to be legally driven on public roads

m371961

Not all states have inspection for antique tags. In my state you have no inspection and a 10 year tag. However you can get a unsafe vehicle ticket.

BlackGold

Not all states have inspection, period.

I think the only cars that need inspection in Michigan are those with a salvage title and ground-up customs. If we had inspections, half the cars would be pulled from the road. Land of the free and home of the rust.

MDchanic

BUT most states that do not have annual inspections (as far as I know) have a legal provision that allows any police officer to perform a roadside inspection if he sees fit. Even New York, which DOES require inspections, allows this.

In practice, that means that any cop who pulls you over can (if you tee him off enough) have you demonstrate your lights, horn, and wipers, and check any part of the car that you can check without a lift (and the special roving mobile commercial vehicle inspection units can do even more).
All a cop has to do is ask you to operate your lights, horn, and wipers, and you've just gotten a ticket.

- Eric

Rallye469

That space is also the perfect size to mount an MSD box.

-pete

Allan R

Honestly though Eric, any police officer who pulls over that car is more likely to just want to see the car up close. That's what happens with mine. I got pulled over because the officer thought I wasn't wearing my safety restraint. When He came to the side of the car and asked why my seat belt wasn't on I just pointed down at my lap and showed him his mistake. He didn't ask anything else, but did comment about how he liked the look of the car. Minor car guy chat on the side of the road with the police - no harm no foul.

Octania

"All a cop has to do is ask you to operate your lights, horn, and wipers, and you've just gotten a ticket."

I had the driver side wiper arm come off one day
of course it was a torrential downpour, and I had to be somewhere

I used the wiper blade in my left hand thru the open window

You have to have wipers, but they don't have to be electric!

MDchanic

You live in Canada, Allan.

Though I've never had a problem yet (I have no record and look "respectable" but not "spoiled"), in the US, you never know when you're going to encounter "that" cop, and suddenly have a very, very bad day.

My wife got pulled over out of state, and got a huge ticket just the other day for running a stop sign which she did NOT run (she's 56 and a VERY conservative driver).
The cop couldn't tell her what she'd done wrong when she first saw her, and wanted her to get out of the car. She flat out refused.
She figured the cop was looking to "find" some drugs in there, and she was probably right.
She'll fight it, but it's her word against Joanna Law's, and you know how that goes.
She's lucky, because she could have been tazed or shot.

And how about that couple in their sixties who were abused and arrested while driving their antique car a month or two ago, because the cop typed the plate number in wrong?

Every time you get pulled over, there is a chance you could be killed.
It's just a fact.

- Eric

Allan R

I had no idea it was so bad down there. Sounds downright draconian.

MDchanic

Your mileage may vary, but it's always a crapshoot.

I had a guy almost shoot me a few years ago. About a mile from my house. In a very safe area.
He said I had a headlight out.
I knew I had seen its reflection in another car when I had started out 5 minutes before.
He went back to his car and I went to look at the headlight and see if I had a loose wire.
He went for his gun.
I mean, really?

It's not that I haven't been shot at before - I have - but this was in a completely low-stress situation.
If a cop in a zero-crime area, where many, many people don't even know where their house keys are, because they never lock their doors, is so stressed that he draws down on an unarmed, local person (address on license and registration), who is moving away from him, and has a kid in the passenger seat, then every interaction with these guys is completely unpredictable.

It's like encountering a wild animal in the woods.
If you do like Ranger Rick told you, then you might not get eaten. Or maybe you will.
Your tax dollars at work.

- Eric

Octania

tru-blue 442

Funny Sh*t. I needed an afternoon giggle. Thanks Chris.

73aussie455

It scares the **** out of me.

I just watched on the news a cop vid of a cop abusing and assaulting a negro woman because she allegedly didn't use her indicator. she says she did. he fought with her through the window and again with the door open after she (rightly)refused to get out, then arrested and cuffed her all the time threatening to 'light her up'. I honestly thought he was going to taze, beat or shoot her.

man, what a place you live in.

Allan R

You haven't followed up on this have you? She was found dead in her cell a few days later. Case is still being investigated.

MDchanic

I don't want this to get political, but I was brought up (in the 1960s) being told never to drive in the South with Northern license plates.

This is why.

(And my skin is a pale pink, though that shouldn't matter).

- Eric