I've contemplated going with a single plane intake for quite awhile now. The thing that really bugged me was the possiblity of losing the passenger side windshield wiper. The Heads Up group I want to compete in says that all "street" cars must have working wipers,,,, blah. I think most street car classes for bracket racing have this same stipulation as well. Another issue was that modding/cutting the wiper assembly just looked very unfinished. I've heard people talking about relocatiing the wiper, but never saw anyone doing it. So, I took the innitiative to relocate the PS wiper arm. I'm not a bodyman, so please forgive the crudness of the welds and proper prep lol,,, this will eventually be smoothed out with body seam sealer once I finish the cowl modifications under the windshield. Eventually the area directly under the windshield to the firewall will be removed and boxed-in, at least the part directly above the engine anyway.

Here are some pics and descriptions of the wiper transplant.


Here is the wiper assembly, looking all obtrusive in factory form.






Wiper assembly removed.





Removed the bracket holding section that needed to be relocated. I used an old blanket that was hosed down with water to catch any flying sparks. You can also see I used painters tape on the windshield and top sides of the fenders to help protect them.





Trying to figure out exactly where to move it etc.. Eventually it ended up with exactly 8" toward the driver side. This was as far over as it could move without removing material above the brake booster where the sheet metal arcs inward.



After some trial fitting and a lot of trimming/cutting/grinding, it found it's way to its new home. You can sort of see where I had to notch out a bit of the underside just above the brake booster. This allows the wiper lever assembly to be removed/installed. Also notched a bit just below the windshield to make it easier to get in/out.







So originally I just shortened the arms for the wiper mechanism the same amount that I moved the wiper. Apparently I had taken them on/off so many times that the sockets lost their holding power. The first time I attempted to operate the wipers, the arms just popped right off. They would operate just fine without the wipers attached, but as soon as there was a load placed, they popped off. I searched around the garage and found some old spherical rods ends I had laying around. These can be purchased for around $8-12 a piece. Also used some threaded rod (all-thread) that was cut to length.

Here you can see the difference between stock and new.



With using the spherical rod ends, had to remove the original ball studs and weld on my own threaded section to attach the rod ends. All I had was 1/4"x20 threaded rod so cut to length and welded them on. Also used some rubber tubing to insert into the rod ends bearing section and nylok nuts. This took up the extra slack from the size difference and will also keep the wiper operation nice and quiet instead of a clunk clunk... Priorities ya know...





Here is where I'm at so far. Once the coil packs are relocated and make up new spark plug wires I can then remove the engine and get started removing/boxing in the rest of the cowl. Might lengthen the wiper arm itself as well, to make up for the relocated distance. Took some quick measurements, and it appears it can only lengthened by about 4.5-5 inches. Anything more and the wiper blade would arc accross higher than the windshield unless you used a shorter blade length.



Hope this might help out a few of ya out there looking for an alternative to what I've seen being done with this wiper problem.

Mike

 

you know you could just not use that one bolt, and notch the base of the pass wiper is all thats needed for running a carb hat.

what are you going to run off the TB, any filter there over 4inch rill not be under the hood and it will rain right on it.

 

The car will never be driven in the rain or kept outside. The only reason the wipers are still on the car is for class rules. I'll probably make a small lip along the bottom of the windshield to catch anything coming off the windshield if by the off chance I do get caught in the rain someday.

I'm still deciding on a hood but it will prob be a 3" raised SS hood. I think the raised portion extends backward enough to cover the TB. I will make a pan to seal the TB up to the hood and get all the incoming air from the scoop of the hood.

That's the plan anyway....

Mike

 

I missed the class thing. I have the sunco street style, and I htink its the same as the 3 inch SS if you find out I can get some pics for you. The cowl of the hood dose go back over that area. Another hood in the sunco wide. The cowl it alot taller and looks to have more slope back. I htink that would cover even more, it still clears the wipers.

 

Yeah I used to go back and forth between wanting the raised SS hood and the wide sunoco hood. Pretty sure I'm gonna go with the SS hood. That way I can utilize the opening in the front. Just need to fabricate a lower pan that the TB can seal up against and put some kind of filter behind the opening of the hood.

Some pics of how far back your cowl extends would be great man. Maybe a shot from the top looking down and another from the side. That should give me a good idea how much it'll cover.

Mike

 

A few pics I have probably compile all of them and do a build thread at some point.


This is a breather i made after trying all kinds of crap.

 

Thanks for the pics.

I'll be working on the car again this week finishing up the cowl mods.

Mike

 

This is my setup but I would REALLY like to know how you made your air cleaner? By adding my filter I lost 60rwhp.

 

I made it out of a air cleaner spacer and a cut apart conical filter. But mine slowed my car down 5 MPH in the 1/4. I just run it on the street and take it of at the track. fits perfectly in my console.

 

Damn thats some crazy lost in power and MPH.