Technical 57 Ford wiper mechanism

Hello everyone!
The winter blues got me thinking about my 57 Fairlane and how I'd like to make it better to drive during bad weather. I was wondering if there is any wiper mechanism kit or a donor to get rid of the pulley and cable system. My car only has one wiper transmission and all the cables and pulleys are gone. They don't reproduce them. I know you can get a conversion kit for a tri5 chev.
Thoughts? Ideas?

 

Why not find the stock parts you art missing and then find an electric wiper motor that will work?

 

Most of us know a 55 chevy electric motor bolts right in place, that's the easy part. The stock cable system is a Royal Disaster! Ford got it together in 1958 and did away with it and went with a motor under the dash where it belongs and two hard metal arms to operate the transmission towers. I have never seen an aftermarket drop in system for the 57 model. Find yourself a 58 parts car and do an upgrade.

 

The '58 ***emblyshould swap in., if you can find that one.It upgrades to a solid-arm type wiper-transmission. Not sure if the'59 would. work.

 

Hmm..I do know of a 58 that's getting parted out soon. I wonder if they would all bolt right in or if there's some fabbing that would need done.

 

From what I understand there is some fabrication work involved as all the mechanism is under the dash rather than under the cowl. If your cable system is still intact I would try and get it working instead and as mentioned the tri-5 Chevy electric motor is a straight bolt on.

 

59 has different spacing between the blade stands, I'd say no.

Correct, You'll do best if you take the 58 unit out of the doner yourself. At least then you should have a good idea what you're getting into. It's not a big deal but not just Nutz-n-Boltz. Been to many years-n-beers for me to give you step by step but I don't remember to much swearing going on.
RmK57 is correct, it's easier to try and get the 57 stuff working again if you can. That said and as I remember things, when you go into the old Shop Service manual for replacing the cables the routing for them is WRONG. I ended up going to another intact 57 and drawing a diagram as I took it all apart so I could get mine back in working order. That was somewhere around 1975 so the diagram is long gone but I never forgot the lesson. I should have made the changes in my service manual with clear notes; I'd still have them. With the electric motor now under the dash you have to make previsions for that. It's minor for where I'm at in the building stage of cars in general, maybe not so much for others.

 

For those that don't know, 57-58 Ford cars were near twins with some up-grades and cosmetics. 59 was nearly unto it's self. As different to the 57-58 years of Fords as a 58 Chevy is to it's 55-56 cousins. The car is shorter floorpan to door window opening, Cowell and firewall is one off, and the windshield is One Year to itself. And it just keeps going on. Ask Me how I know.


That's kinda Kool, the Edsel is hiding in the bushes.

 

Have you checked with Newport Engineering? Bob may have an easy solution to your problem.

 

I've thought about trying to make the original set up work with an electric motor but I'm missing the cables and trying to find another set in tact isn't that easy. Maybe I will try and look at the 58 I know of and see what I can come up with.

 

2nd vote for Newport. They have many applications.

 

Yes they have the electric motor but that's it. Nothing to replace the cable/pulley system.

 

If push comes to shove, there’s always the “street rod kits” from those guys. Just watch who you buy from, good old Johnny Law is one of them.

 

New Port is the best system!!!

 

Whichever way decide to go it’s gonna be hard. The 58 linkage system will require the removal of the dash ***embly to fabricate mounting for the pivots and bars. If there is a Newport swap it will more than likely be just an electric wiper motor with wiring and a switch.

 

Yup. It was hard. I used an F150 wiper motor from an 80's truck, I think, but that's from memory about 11 years ago. I lost count of how many times I made a new plate with the holes drilled in different places to get the ratios right for rotation.
I think I used the original 57 stands. All pretty much hand made cause my original cable system was shredded in many places.
I think this might have been easier than replacing those cable though. But on second thought, no , this was a bunch of time. Not much expense but a lot of time.




I have a video of it running, but I don't know how to load it .
****ty blurry pics but that's all I have of it right now.
It is all removable from the engine compartment, for servicing.

 

When I was young I was around and owned 57's. I didn't realize I got lucky without having one fail.

 

Okay, most of us here agree the stock 57 system is a PITA! I have done the 58 changeover, and it is a lot of work as I remember. I don't remember a specific problem with the Blade stand and removing the dash completely does not make access to the blade stand spots or any other space needed to do the job easily. There's a fresh air intake cavity that blocks access to the stand holes. This is what a 57 looks like with the dash removed.

If you're going to work from there you will need to cut access and open yourself to both Water and Air flow when driving. Personally, I would not do another 58-system upgrade.
I have used the Specialty Power universal system in a lot of cars. My favorite for them is the 1932 to 1939 Fords with the swing open windshield. I use the Factory holes and once done the windshield still opens with no issues. The last one I did was a 34 Chev sedan coming through the Cowell. When building my 51 Ford I called them and asked about one for it. I was told they really wanted one for that market, but they couldn't get it done in house and was advised not to try it. To say the least the challenge was on. It's been in and working for 20 years. I drive the car year-round here in the PNW (W stands for Wet). I really love the intermittent settings.
That said if I hadn't already rounded up everything in NOS parts for the stock 57 system, I would just install the Specialty Power system and move on. I believe this is the part # for their universal system though it doesn't say universal on the label. (double check that)

I believe this system would only involve one 3/8" hole drilled and I might install a gromet with it and I'd mount the drive motor on the P***enger side for easy access. I would do my best to use the stock 57 wiper drive base and stock bezel so it didn't show change at all. Disclaimer,== I have not done it yet however I have a new kit in house, and it may happen just to make things easier if I ever get back to this project.