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Black Finish on Square Taillight Windshield Wipers


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I would like to get my windshield wiper arms and blade assemblies refinished: the black finish has accumulated heavy road rash from years of service. What is the correct finish on these? Black oxide? Black chromate? Something else?

Passenger-side wiper arms (i.e., without the small spoiler) remain available from BMW with the black finish. But neither the driver-side arm nor the 16" blade assemblies of the late cars remain available with the black finish. Thus I'm resorting to the refinishing route.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards,

Steve

1976 2002 Polaris, 2742541 (original owner)

1973 2002tii Inka, 2762757 (not-the-original owner)

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and blades with SEM "trim black" spray paint. It's a semi gloss black and is quite durable. I've used it on stainless steel trim and it lasted four or five years without peeling or flaking.

The silver arms/blades used on roundies are identical, just with a silver finish--find one and paint over it.

cheers

mike

'69 Nevada sunroof-Wolfgang-bought new
'73 Sahara sunroof-Ludwig-since '78
'91 Brillantrot 318is sunroof-Georg Friederich 
Fiat Topolini (Benito & Luigi), Renault 4CVs (Anatole, Lucky Pierre, Brigette) & Kermit, the Bugeye Sprite

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and blades with SEM "trim black" spray paint. It's a semi gloss black and is quite durable. I've used it on stainless steel trim and it lasted four or five years without peeling or flaking.

Thanks, Mike.

Much appreciated!

Steve

1976 2002 Polaris, 2742541 (original owner)

1973 2002tii Inka, 2762757 (not-the-original owner)

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Guest Anonymous

The mounting threads are different.

I forget which is which but i think the early wipers use a coarser spline (less teeth) than the later ones. Not sure when the change occured but i know that there are two different mounts with the arms

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The mounting threads are different.

I forget which is which but i think the early wipers use a coarser spline (less teeth) than the later ones. Not sure when the change occured but i know that there are two different mounts with the arms

Thanks.

Steve

1976 2002 Polaris, 2742541 (original owner)

1973 2002tii Inka, 2762757 (not-the-original owner)

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The mounting threads are different.

I forget which is which but i think the early wipers use a coarser spline (less teeth) than the later ones. Not sure when the change occured but i know that there are two different mounts with the arms

I removed the black coated wiper arms on my 76 and replaced with the un-coated, stainless (?) same splines. Fit perfectly. I have several arms (stainless & black) and they all fit the same.

IMG_5312.jpg

1976 2002 Custom Dk Blue w/ Pearl

1975 2002A Sahara (sold Feb 2008)

SiteNamecopy.jpg

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I removed the black coated wiper arms on my 76 and replaced with the un-coated, stainless (?) same splines. Fit perfectly. I have several arms (stainless & black) and they all fit the same.

IMG_5312.jpg

Got it! Beautiful car! Are the black wiper blades on it 15" or 16"? If 16", do you recall the source?

Thanks,

Steve

1976 2002 Polaris, 2742541 (original owner)

1973 2002tii Inka, 2762757 (not-the-original owner)

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Thanks... They are Michelin blades, 15" I believe. (I just measured them and they are 15 1/2" from one end to the other) Took me some time to find a plastic adapter that slides snuggly onto the end of the arm also. The adapters packaged with most of the wiper blades aren't a good tight fit. After I had a brand new wiper blade go flying off the car, I took an hour & went through a bag of plastic adapters I had, til I found some that fit right.

Scott

1976 2002 Custom Dk Blue w/ Pearl

1975 2002A Sahara (sold Feb 2008)

SiteNamecopy.jpg

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Thanks... They are Michelin blades, 15" I believe. (I just measured them and they are 15 1/2" from one end to the other) Took me some time to find a plastic adapter that slides snuggly onto the end of the arm also. The adapters packaged with most of the wiper blades aren't a good tight fit. After I had a brand new wiper blade go flying off the car, I took an hour & went through a bag of plastic adapters I had, til I found some that fit right.

Scott

Thanks, Scott. That's helpful.

Regards,

Steve

1976 2002 Polaris, 2742541 (original owner)

1973 2002tii Inka, 2762757 (not-the-original owner)

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The mounting threads are different.

I forget which is which but i think the early wipers use a coarser spline (less teeth) than the later ones. Not sure when the change occured but i know that there are two different mounts with the arms

Steveo here.....

FWIW---

I had some chrome wiper arms from my '68 '02 and wanted to put them on my '74 to replace the chipped black arms and they would not mount the stubs. upon further inspection i discovered that the spline count was different between the black arm from the '74 and the silver arms of the '68.

Possibly it was just the very early '02s that had a coarse spline.

I ended up sanding down and repainting the '74 black arms.

Be sure to use a good primer first.

I used the SEM trim paint that Mike suggested.

Several light coats over a 1 week period and wetsanded with 1500 grit between coats. I was very happy with the results.

Too many cars, too small of a barn!

(several 2002's, e3's, e9's & e24's and an NK sedan in the past)

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  • 1 month later...

FWIW: One of the platers I use examined the (remaining) original finish on my car's wiper arms and blades and opined that the original finish was some form of thin powdercoating. So I took them to my powdercoater, and for $40, I had both wipers media-blasted and powdercoated in a relatively-low-gloss black. They look fabulous despite the fact that I didn't really disassemble them (each broke down into 4 pieces: arm, blade, metal support [for the rubber inserts], and retaining clips [that holds the metal support on the blade]).

Steve

1976 2002 Polaris, 2742541 (original owner)

1973 2002tii Inka, 2762757 (not-the-original owner)

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