The wiper system is relatively straight forward, however it is complicated by the typical kit issues. Moldings incorrect, missing parts, incorrect parts. Yes, I may sound cynical but it can be overcome
The GT40 included a washer system also, which I have added to my build.
Body modifications
The molds for the RCR GT40 came from the original car, P1008 which was a RH drive car. The wiper mount is offset to the drivers side. To match to my LH drive, I cut two sections from the front of the spider to swap sides and locate the mount to the drivers side. This also required modifying the front clip to match.
Build Tip: when doing these cuts and swaps, make sure your front clip is positioned on the frame and around the spider properly and matching gaps. It’s real easy to introduce additional warps into the front clip which require correction at a later point. Ask me how I know.
Wiper motor mounting
The original cars used a Lucas wiper motor similar to that used on the Sunbeam Tiger. The transmission system is mounted on the end of the motor, not turned 90 degrees like most Lucas wipers. They were position in the front clip area. Those motors are extremely rare.
The RCR system uses a marine wiper mounted inside and under the aluminum cowl area.I chose to continue with this approach. It seemed to be the best use of space. The difficulty comes from the supplied motor not being the correct shaft length.
To use the supplied motor, one would have to cut the top of the cowl and fabricate all kinds of bracketry to mount the motor. The shaft was a Sea-Dog #412111B-3 which is a 1.5″ mounting shaft. The model #412131B-3 is the same model with a 3.5″ long mounting shaft. This was long enough to go thru the spider, cowl and angle blocks and mount the motor under the cowl without modification. These seem to be on backorder for quite some time but I found a 422131B-3 which is the waterproof version on eBay.
I located the center of the mounting on the spider and drilled a hole perpendicular to the mounting face (and windshield) thru the spider and thru the cowl. I then enlarged it to 5/8″ to allow the shaft to pass. I cut two Delrin spacers with a 28° cut on one face so the motor would be mounted on the correct angle.
Complications
The dash on the GT40 is semi-permanently mounted. To remove it, you must remove the spider. Mounting the wiper required tightening the nuts to the chassis then placing another nut on the exterior of the spider. But the dash is in the way to tighten the nuts on the chassis.
I modified the demist recess to include an access hatch to get to the nut. Just more hours in the build schedule
This section is yet to be completed. More information as that part of the build is addressed.
