MDMetal Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 .. silly question but, Ive got the cap off and undone the nut on the wiper arm, the manual says "Remove washer tube from washer tube joint" Im asusming thats just pulling the tube off its plastic connector down into the engine bay? next step "Remove front wiper arm mounting nuts and front wiper arm from vehicle" well i pulled and its not coming away! is some force required? Im hesitant just to yank as hard as I can for fear of damaging what its connect to! Is the wiper arm meant to lift off pretty freely? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racinggreen Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Yes to the tube. To remove wiper pull wiper from windscreen as if you are cleaning then it pulls free easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wasso Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 It will take a bit of force to slide off the spline, try some wd40 to help lubricate. Also try wiggling the wiper etc. Failing that try levering from behind with an object that won't damage any surrounding parts of the car, maybe use a cloth beneath to avoid marking. It will come off but be patient Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mc Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 not sure about on the Z, but on some cars the arm is on a spline and need a bit of gentle levering from underneath with a flat blade screwdriver or similar to lift it up if it is a bit tight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoogyRev Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 It will take a bit of force to slide off the spline, try some wd40 to help lubricate. Also try wiggling the wiper etc. Failing that try levering from behind with an object that won't damage any surrounding parts of the car, maybe use a cloth beneath to avoid marking. It will come off but be patient +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narcotix Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Just reminded me that I desperately need to re-spray my wiper arms too! Let us know how you get on ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctor austin Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Personally I would use a small two legged puller....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmck13 Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 Personally I would use a small two legged puller....... First thing I did was to respray my wiper arms when I bought mine but they were well and truly stuck on the spline I had to borrow a small puller. The problem in trying to prize it of is that the surrounding area is basically plastic and it would easily split under the slighest pressure, these small pullers prevent that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDMetal Posted March 16, 2012 Author Share Posted March 16, 2012 still getting problems with this, soaked it in wd40 got it to the point where the arm could rotate left and right around its pin but i couldnt for the life of me pull it off :/ am i doing something wrong? the manual refers to an 'auto stop position' is it basically just saying do this when the wiper is in the normal off position? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctor austin Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 you really do need a puller Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveW Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 Don't forget to mark the wipers current spline position so you can put them back in the same place. They are a nightmare to get off! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmck13 Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 still getting problems with this, soaked it in wd40 got it to the point where the arm could rotate left and right around its pin but i couldnt for the life of me pull it off :/ am i doing something wrong? the manual refers to an 'auto stop position' is it basically just saying do this when the wiper is in the normal off position? Auto stop nothing to do with this,the answer has been given twice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDMetal Posted March 23, 2012 Author Share Posted March 23, 2012 Ok theyre finally off, the trick btw seems to be not just to pull them back (away from the screen) but to wiggle them to a middle position between theyre normal position (on the screen) and the back position (away from the screen) then they slide off nice and easily! Now they're off how do I break down the wiper arms to their components so I can sand and spray individually? the upper and lower arm are joined by a pin and spring, the pin doesnt look very removable! Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racinggreen Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 Ok theyre finally off, the trick btw seems to be not just to pull them back (away from the screen) but to wiggle them to a middle position between theyre normal position (on the screen) and the back position (away from the screen) then they slide off nice and easily! Now they're off how do I break down the wiper arms to their components so I can sand and spray individually? the upper and lower arm are joined by a pin and spring, the pin doesnt look very removable! Cheers As I said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDMetal Posted March 23, 2012 Author Share Posted March 23, 2012 Ok theyre finally off, the trick btw seems to be not just to pull them back (away from the screen) but to wiggle them to a middle position between theyre normal position (on the screen) and the back position (away from the screen) then they slide off nice and easily! Now they're off how do I break down the wiper arms to their components so I can sand and spray individually? the upper and lower arm are joined by a pin and spring, the pin doesnt look very removable! Cheers As I said. hehe indeed however pulling them back and pulling does nothing its the wiggling back and forth that works, small omitted detail hehe nevermind theyre off now, how did you split the upper and lower arms apart? I can see its easy enough to pull the spring back and off but how do i remove the centre pin? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDMetal Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 All done and re attached took some piccies, you can see in the pre pic theres a few deep scratches theres some severe bubbling near one of the elbows and in the bottom left how much I had to sand off to remove the paint flakes/corrosions. That said the post pic shows now nicely theyve come up, I spent the whole weekend on it so I was able to build up thin coats, sand down a few spots I hadnt got smooth on the first pass then build up more coats and leave to dry. Theyve come up a treat and Id recomend anyone thinking about it to just go for it, once they were off had zero issues! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wasso Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Great job.... Need to do mine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zebedee8 Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 hi i am going to rub down my wiper arms and repaint but not sure what brand of paint to use, what paint did you use for yours. many thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narcotix Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 I'm going to do mine this weekend too ... It's about time as well .. LoL When you prepped the arms, what type/grade of sandpaper did you use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveRS Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 I'm going to do mine this weekend too ... It's about time as well .. LoL When you prepped the arms, what type/grade of sandpaper did you use? Not sure what the OP used but I would recommend a 2500 grit (fine) wet and dry paper so that it smooths the paint rather than overly scratching the metal, otherwise you would only need to go over it with fine paper to smooth it out again. I would also use this paper in between coats to remove any contaminant that gets onto the surface (mainly specs of dust) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctor austin Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 My opinion is slightly different: 1 2500 grade is well fine I would use 1000 or 1200 for final flatting back. 2 Initial prep my advice is 500 3 Sand paper goes in the bottom of a budgie cage BTW!! 4 Oh I would prime first Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MITZ@CougarStore Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 Great job, MDMetal... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narcotix Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 Well, I finally got it sorted this weekend .. It's been something I've been meaning to do for ages ... so I'm pretty happy! I used steel wool to remove all the bubbling and rust first ... Then used some 800 grit to get it smoother ... then just started applying the primer and flatted back in between coats with really fine wet & dry paper ... Then I put about 5 coats of Matt black paint on it and they look Perfect! The only problem now id that my blades look old and worn ... so I've had to order some new ones .. LoL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDMetal Posted April 8, 2012 Author Share Posted April 8, 2012 So paint wise I used the satin black hamerite, its not an exact match but its close, I sprayed the whole arm a few times to help blend in the finishes so they look identical. Obviously mask off the washer jets! Paint in those would not be good. I didnt prime it purely as it was hamerite but bare in mind it'll take a good 5 coats to full cover the metal solidly, then I gave it an additional 10 or so on top to really beef it up, remember lots of small quick coats will give you a superiour finish to a few heavy coats that are prone to running. Sanding wise I used some very very heavy paper to get the initial corrosion off, if yours are anything like mine youll need to remove 3-4 times the amount of paint compared to whats already come off. You can see in one of my images just how bad the bubbling under the paint work was, once the worst is off switch to a medium grade paper to tidy up the area, level out the metal and paint so it all sits flush, then get out your fine grade to really smooth off the area so its perfect. After that I washed each arm using washingup liquid to remove any hint of oil, gave that a good rinse and dry then time to spray! I spent pretty much the whole weekend on this, you could narrow it down to a day but its worth putting the time in, if you can put 10+ coats of paint on 15-20 min apart for each coat youll get a really hi quality finish. This is just my personal experience im sure others have their own methods Its a really nice thing to do to get your 350 looking tip top with mininal outlay (think i spent £9 on paint and paper tops) The wipers are one of those areas that point to the cars age get rid of those and nobody believes you when you say its 7 years old (in my case) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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