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Wed Dec 12, 2007 6:57 am

About one year ago I bought a pair of wiper blades for my '60 from WW. Last week it rained and I had an opportunity to use them. Turned on the switch and the rubber on the blades sheared off. What kind of cheap ass rubber are these guys using? The blades were not cheap and should last, especially unused, for more than one year. Anyone else repopping these and using quality rubber and not black cardboard?
--Dan

Wed Dec 12, 2007 7:03 am

Did you give Wolfsburg West a chance to do something about it?

Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:02 am

Braukuche wrote: The blades were not cheap and should last, especially unused, for more than one year.

that's longer than some NOS / original (unused) ones i have installed in the past.

Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:34 am

Last year I purchased a set of WW wiper blades (about the only ones I could find that weren't NOS). Luckily it didn't rain much last year. I was not that impressed with the quality and they lasted up to about a month ago. Purchased another set and was very impressed! WW did a good job of improving the quality of their wiper blades. Give them another try and I have always found them very responsive to feedback. I bought some rubber seal material for my camper windows and they were a little short (measured for Westy windows that fit in windows vs cut outs for dealer campers) they responded quickly and sent me the right measurement.

Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:36 am

they are bad quality..i replaced mine with bosch because I had the same issues with them. the only thing i can figure is they thought they were closer to the original ones that came with the car.

Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:54 am

Replaceblade rubber with the good stuff window cleaners use on their squeegees.

I think the stuff made by Unger is German too!

http://www.detroitsponge.com/c-39-squeegee-rubber.aspx

Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:27 am

79SuperVert wrote: Did you give Wolfsburg West a chance to do something about it?

That's the purpose of this post. Perhaps my experience is an anomally. If that's the case then they are likely to do nothing, but if a lot of others have had the same problem then I have a case.
On the whole, rubber products these days are just flat out lame. I've got rubber tailight seals on my Ghia that I installed just 2.5 years ago which are already cracked. I've for a '60 bug sitting in my driveway with OG rubber that is in better shape. Pisses me off to spend good money on shoddy crap.
--Dan

Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:38 am

honestly i trip out on people who expect stuff that goes bad after a year to be under warranty. the wipers worked fine but after a year 'cmon. maybe you did pay a "lot" but bus wipers fetch a premium due to their specific size and design along with asthetics. im sure it is annoying but after a year you have no leg to stand on. my two cents. ps i can no longer find german replacements but ther are some indian ones for around 12 bucks each.

Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:04 am

I bought a pile of oem SWF bus wiper blades about ten+ years ago, and have slowly been working my way through them. They last more than a year.
It rains here. My buses get rained on. They don't melt. Rainex can be an accessory, but cannot replace good wipers. Must have good wipers.

The rubber in the NOS three rubber blades on the Montana 56 westy is still good.

The new rubber around the headlight.. the stuff that goes on the body before you install the headlights, is broken on that 56. It was replaced with new about a year and a half or 2 years ago. :roll: Don't remember which brand.

The PNW is a better climate for storing rubber than say, a desert

Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:20 am

Here in the arid Desert Southwest we're lucky if we can get a set of wiper blades to last more than a year. I wasn't too awful happy with the wiping ability of the stock blade so I installed a set of Bosch wipers which are spring loaded. They work really well but like all rubber products down here the sun and the heat dry rot them in no time. They're cheap enough that it's not really an issue, and they're commonly available at any auto parts store. The only thing is they don't look 100% correct... Function over form I say.

Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:30 am

all rubber is different and have different scales of elasticity/ the softer the more porous, just like the lovely soft german shit( ilove how it feels!!), but the firmer stuff is usually less porous and not so many fillers in the rubber , this slows down the decomposition process. also most is synthetic these days, the real cheapo stuff may be natural too but with more clay and fillers in it. if you had german wipers, most likely natural tree rubber that will decompose in our envoirnment, but in Germany may last longer. be glad you can still find wipers for a bus.

Wed Dec 12, 2007 7:21 pm

Clara Quote: I bought a pile of oem SWF bus wiper blades about ten+ years ago, and have slowly been working my way through them

Me too and they are still fine. In Southern California when the rain stops after April you can go with crappy ones till October or November.

Wed Dec 12, 2007 7:22 pm

hazetguy wrote: that's longer than some NOS / original (unused) ones i have installed in the past.

Great, thanks for the heads up! #-o

Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:01 pm

You know is kind of funny that this topic has been brought up. Its been raining here for about 2 weeks solid. And today on the way home form work I was saying "these wipers suck". They also came from WW. I drive my Scab everyday and I dont really care what my wipers look like I just care that i can see out my front windshield when its raining. So does anyone have any other options they have used besides these repo pieces of crap.

Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:46 pm

I can't remember where I bought the bus wiper blades but I had a set on my 1957 bus for over 15 years and they never did rot out. The last couple of years, I started removing the wiper arms and blades during the non-rainy months, and storing them behind the front seat. I was afraid that they could be stolen and I wanted to keep the rubber away from the sunlight.
The last six years, I've had a new fuel tank neck rubber, shift lever rubber, and headlight rim to body seals that got full of cracks after a while. Where is that shit coming from?

Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:05 pm

My newest pair is WW and I think they improved over the last WW set I bought. My wife's toyota corolla goes through wipers about every 1-2 years too. Rain-x and the anti fog stuff for the inside works wonders. C'est la vie!

Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:33 pm

I know its far from correct but I use what I think are ghia wiper arms. They have better spring pressure to the windshield and you can use (relatively) modern wiper blades that are easily available. Rain-X helps but it works better on modern cars with more slope to the windsheild. On my bus the rain tends to pool in odd spots around the windshield (looks to be low air pressure areas) with just Rain-X, and it leaves a thin film of water after the wiper passes over for a brief moment that is actually somewhat blinding at night. This happens on other vehicles I own, also.

Thu Dec 13, 2007 7:14 am

420GOAT wrote: honestly i trip out on people who expect stuff that goes bad after a year to be under warranty. the wipers worked fine but after a year 'cmon. maybe you did pay a "lot" but bus wipers fetch a premium due to their specific size and design along with asthetics. im sure it is annoying but after a year you have no leg to stand on. my two cents. ps i can no longer find german replacements but ther are some indian ones for around 12 bucks each.

Nah, I don't expect a refund, but I do think people should be warned about a shoddy product and if possible buy some other brand. I don't think it unreasonable to expect wiper blades to last more than a year. The blades on my Ghia (Bosch replacements) have been on there for three years now and still work fine; the blades on my other bus, SWFs are also two years old and still function fine. Crap is crap, regardless if it comes from an otherwise great company like WW, but if people don't point it out, especially on a public forum, why should they stop selling it?
--Dan

Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:27 am

as far as i know swf are not available anymore for busses but the indian repops are....see my explaination of rubber....as for the cracking and stuff....that is prob. brazilian or og german.....please see my explaination.

Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:48 am

I thought this thread was a re-key, uhm, er, repost! :?

:lol:

Good thing you didn't trade them for expensive ghia tail lights! :o