therobski

I am having a tough time finding wiper blade refills for my 67 442. any ideas?

jaunty75

In those days, all you replaced when the rubber wore out was the rubber strip with the metal backing that slid through the metal clips along the wiper blade support. You just squeeze the metal tabs on the end so the metal strip that holds the rubber slides out.

On modern cars, when you need to replace a wiper blade, you replace the entire thing, rubber piece and the big metal supporting structure behind it. You just unclip the blade from the end of the wiper arm and clip on the new one. It's a fast, simple system, but a lot of metal gets thrown away along with the rubber itself each time a wiper needs to be replaced.

I needed to replace the wiper blades on my '67 Delta last summer, and what I had to do was find a replacement wiper that had the same type of rubber strip and metal backing, remove that rubber strip from the replacement wiper, and slide it on my car's wiper support.

You're going to have to do a little looking around to find a wiper blade made today that uses the same rubber strip attaching system as was used on the '60s cars. They are out there. They tend, actually, to be the cheaper ones.

MDchanic

I was just in the auto parts store last week. I needed refills for my pickup.

I rooted around and found ONE that was the right size. I asked the counter guy if he had any more, and he said, "I didn't even know we still had those. Nobody buys them anymore - they replace the whole thing."
I pointed out that the refills were cheaper, and that there was nothing wrong with the whole assembly and he just shrugged.
He said he didn't have any more in back, so I looked around, found a brand that was on sale, and bought 2 new assemblies (technically, "blades," as opposed to "refills," as opposed to "arms" when you are talking about the whole thing from the pivot up) for about $3.00 more than it would have cost for the refills.

Stupid.

- Eric

Lady72nRob71

Two reasons for the recent change.

The average car owner needs the replacement to be as simple, fast, and easy as can be. Most cannot handle removing the rubber parts and many modern car blades are now crimped together as a single replacable assy.

The industry responded to this and realized that they will pay 2-3X the cost for the convernience and realized more $ for them. Why sell the rubber part alone they concluded...


Kinda goes along the line of trying to find light bulbs in a 2 pack, toilet paper in a 4 pack (or yet a 12 pack lately!), single rolls of paper towels, fabric softener in a 32oz bottle, yada, yada, yada...
Companies are forcing consumers to buy more than they need so they get more $ per sale.
Oil companies are taking advantage of the opposite. They sell oil in 4 quart bottles now, knowing dang well that the majority of cars and trucks take over 4 quarts!

Stupid things like this are why my house and garage are getting so cluttered. The modern day laundry detergent bottles no longer fit in the cabinets, so they now reside IN the washer...

I am surprised milk is not sold in 2 gallon containers (yet)...

Rant mode disengaged............

stlbluesbrother

I found only 1 auto parts vendor in St. Louis that still sold the blade refills - NAPA. The guy behind the counter had to go to a storage area to pull them (I bought 2 sets for my 70 Cutlass ).

Blk71SX

replacing just the rubber part requires a refill, usually sold in pairs, and can be wide or narrow design. fewer and fewer parts store are keeping those these days.

to replace the entire assembly that attaches to the arm requires a blade. sold individually.

higher profit margins on blades than refills

jaunty75

But the blade on the wiper on these cars is not removable, so how can you replace it? It was never designed to be replaced. The only thing you were expected replace when one of these cars needed new rubber for the wiper was the rubber itself.

I've never seen the entire piece that attaches to the arm sold separately. Back in the day, when I needed to replace the rubber on the wipers on my '75 Chevy Nova, the only thing I could buy was that rubber piece. It was the only replaceable part.

joe_padavano

I'm pretty sure you can replace the entire wiper blade on these cars. I recently did it on my 62. NAPA sells a line of "classic" wiper blades that are stainless (not black or plastic) and look right on these cars.

Blk71SX

there are several different methods of attaching the blades to the wiper arms. I can almost guaranty the blades are removable from the arms. especially the 75 Chevy.

the end of the arms can be straight, curved, 2 types of posts, loop, etc. the trick is figuring out how unhook the blade.

a big draw back to using modern blades is that they're black opposed to silver or chrome.

jaunty75

Perhaps so. I just don't recall seeing anything simple on my '67 as far as removing the blade from the arm or I would have just bought a replacement blade instead of going through the trouble to find a modern replacement that has a removable rubber piece.

Blk71SX

I could never understand why wiper manufacturers had to make the process so difficult, with so many different designs. most of the shorter replacement blades come with several adapters to fit the different styles

find someone involved in the auto repair industry that's around the age of 60 to help. also, NAPA might have illustrations of the different methods.

good luck

stlbluesbrother

Is the original blade 15" and look similar to this? WIP 601537.jpg

I didn't see a blade refill for a '67, but did find an entire blade with an OEM appearance. Here's the link to NAPA http://www.napaonline.com/Search/Det...+50052+2052017#


If the blade isn't exact you can always pull the refill out by pinching the clip on the end and then feed it into your original blade.

Blk71SX

it's common for that type of blade to have metal tabs at each end to retain the rubber in place. bend up or remove one tab and the rubber can be replaced with a refill like Anco U-15R

goodkarmech

Napa Classic wiper blade 15" part number 601537 is the whole blade with silver metal frame instead of black.
If you have a 68 or 69 Cutlass and need a 16 inch the part number is 601647.