Cheap Mods: Wiper Arms

"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa) 02/18/2015 at 08:29 • Filed to: CHEAP MODS, civic, honda

3

17

It's a Honda thing, man. Peeling, nasty wiper arms, black paint flaking off and revealing the bare metal underneath. It goes a long way to making your car look like an unredeemable shitpile. Fortunately, it's one of the easiest things in the world to remedy.

Materials

All you need for this is some newspaper, black Plastidip, and something to clean the arms off if necessary.

Step 1: Masking

Obviously the real first step is to remove the wiper blades, a process that varies by make/model of car and what style of wipers you have. I just didn't feel it was significant enough to give an entire heading. After prying off the blades, tuck newspaper in and around the arms everywhere you don't want paint. The end of the driver's side is a bit of a bitch, so I got some stiff paper and held it in place as I painted.

Step 2: Paint

Painting the arms is pretty self-explanitory. I chose Plastidip for this because it was sitting on my bedroom floor for no reason, and it is pretty much as foolproof as paint goes. It's incredibly forgiving when it runs, it will stick to less-than-stellar prepped surfaces (slightly dirty, unsanded metal, etc.), and it gives a nice satin finish. It was actually colder than recommended for this so the paint was globby and runny, but the results were still smooth. Furthermore, if I decide I don't like it and prefer my blades to look like they have some sort of weird cancer I can just peel it off. Win win!

Step 3: Look less shite

This picture doesn't really show it accurately, but the arms have a nice satin finish that looks very similar to the rubber on the blades (prob ably because plastidip is, you know, black rubber). Ignore my filthy car. It snowed two days after I washed the damn thing.

So there you have it, a massive improvement to my car's looks for the cost of $free with things I had lying around. You could easily do this with other kinds of paint but I would recommend sanding down the arms before you do so to give the paint something to adhere to.

Jake is a college student from Kansas who recently bought a $500 rolling headache Honda Civic and revels in being a cheap bastard saving money and ruining improving the looks of his car. This series will share some of the more worthwhile cheap fixes for common car aesthetic issues.

thebigbossyboss > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 02/18/2015 at 08:32

1

Thanks for this Jake. I will be attempting this myself this summer, before moving onto repairing my lower quarter panel. It will be a good introduction to painting.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 02/18/2015 at 08:33

0

I'm also a big fan of the rustoleum trim and bumper paint. That brought the A-pillars of my MR2 back to life.

Mattbob > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 02/18/2015 at 08:42

0

are those.... Racing seats???

505Turbeaux > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 02/18/2015 at 08:45

3

Not sure if mod, or just making something look less like hell. Been doing it for years with black primer though

Wacko > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 02/18/2015 at 08:50

1

I may be mistaken, but the wiper arm should be easily removed. Should be a locking clip.

looks good.

Ducky > Mattbob 02/18/2015 at 08:56

1

hell yeah dude, don't want to be thrown by the crazy fast civic

Ducky > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 02/18/2015 at 08:56

1

my miata also had this problem, but $3 of sandpaper and $5 of black rustoleum cleaned it up nice

The Gray Adder > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 02/18/2015 at 09:06

1

Next you can tell us how to do something about the goddamned wheel covers. I've driven Hondas for nearly 25 years, and the fucking wheel covers would always peel paint within two years of ownership.

My guess is, it would go like this:

1. Buy a new Honda.

2. Remove wheel covers. Sadly, you have to also remove the total wheels to do this. Something about preventing people from stealing the (total gobshite) wheel covers by bolting them to the car, I guess.

3. Spray wheel covers with clearcoat.

4. Replace wheel covers, again by removing and replacing the fucking wheels.

Next time I get a Prius if I still give a shit about saving gas.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > The Gray Adder 02/18/2015 at 09:33

0

1a: Remove the wheel covers and trash them because bare steelies are pimp as hell.

My car has no wheel covers, just glorious black stamped-steel glory.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Wacko 02/18/2015 at 09:34

0

I didn't want to bother with it after JayhawkJake had some issues with the rear wiper arm on his 91 CRX. Either way, it would have taken more time to find the right tools and remove it than the time I spent masking (five minutes)

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Mattbob 02/18/2015 at 09:35

0

Nah, just rather convincing seat covers. They have vinyl on the butt so I keep them around because my pants stick to cloth seats and make it impossible to slide into the car under the steering wheel.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > thebigbossyboss 02/18/2015 at 09:36

0

Just be warned that these are a million times different than a large flat surface like a car body. Hang some cardboard on a wall and practice painting that with even strokes, aiming for no drips or obvious spray lines. My practice was an entire childhood of building and spray painting Estes model rockets.

thebigbossyboss > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 02/18/2015 at 09:37

0

Thanks bud.

Mattbob > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 02/18/2015 at 09:39

0

oh man, Vinyl in the summer though. I used to have an old wrangler with vinyl seats. They would burn your legs if you wore shorts in the summer.

Justin Hughes > The Gray Adder 02/18/2015 at 09:40

0

Or you could repaint them in the color of your choosing - silver for stock-ish look, or something else. Then clearcoat them.

My RT4WD Civic wagon came with the stock white steelies, which had rusted quite a bit by the time I got the car and looked like crap. I decided to sand them down and repaint them a dark metallic grey that I had kicking around from the last set of old alloys I fixed up. I had the wheels at a friend's shop for new tires, and decided the time to paint them was mid-change, with no tires on them. Even better, he had a sandblasting box he let me use, so I was able to take the wheels down to bare metal before priming and painting them. The end result looked amazing, and were frequently mistaken for aftermarket alloys.

GTI Sprinks > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 02/18/2015 at 10:31

0

nicely done. I would have done this to my old honda but by the time it got to this point it was already peeling clearcoat off the hood as well. At some point you just embrace driving the thing in to the ground and making it look the part.

The Gray Adder > Justin Hughes 02/18/2015 at 11:01

0

Yeah, I could do that, but it's a Civic four-door sedan, and sporty-colored wheel covers would look silly. And I'm talking about the plastic wheel covers that come with any Honda that doesn't have alloy rims. For whatever reason, paint doesn't stick to them very well. What I'll eventually do is strip them down with a Black and Decker Mouse, then lay down a proper primer coat or two prior to hitting it with the appropriate color bumper paint. Then I'll finish it off by hand-painting the logo in the middle with a horsehair brush and black paint before applying the clearcoat.

And while I'm at it, I could take the primer-black steelies, sand the rust off of them, and hit them with some proper shiny black paint before putting them back on with my freshly-repainted covers.