So my 39 Dodge pickup is road worthy, so now I'm chasing down the important things like wipers, door locks, and the finer things of driving.
Today, wipers are on my mind. The truck originally had vacuum wipers and they are long gone (as in not present), wouldn't want them anyway. The wipers on this truck are above the windshield, but mt windshield is now bonded to the frame, so it does not tilt out the they originally did.

That pretty well leaves me with electric wipers. What I've seen available on line is not getting very good reviews. It appears most of the electric wipers on line have very weak motors and plastic gears, they say they won't pull the wiper across the glass unless the glass is wet, and they fail quickly if any snow is present. neither situation sounds very good to me. I don't intend on running the wipers dry, or driving in heavy snow, but I've been in drizzle/mist that tends to produce pretty dry glass after a few strokes, and I've been caught in in some rain snow mix more then once.
Since this truck cab is the same cab Dodge has used on the military 4x4s from WW2 through about 1966, I called www.vintagepowerwagons today to see what options they offer. I know they manufacture parts for these vintage Power Wagons. The word from them was I have 4 options.
1) Have no wipers.
2) Locate and have them rebuild the original vacuum wipers. (no price given)
3) Buy the light duty wipers that caution they are very light duty and not for any snow movement. ($160 complete, + shipping)
4) Buy a special wiper system created for them, that is heavy duty. Comes with both wiper motors, two wiper arms, and two wiper blades. Their system sounds great until he told me the price tag of $775 + shipping...WOW!

So, I'm wondering if anyone may have another option, somewhere between option 3 and option 4 (with a price nearer to option 3) from Vintage Power Wagon. What are you guys doing, and, are the electric wipers on the market as weak as they appear to be? Gene

Minivan rear window wiper motors are compact, powerful and adaptable. You have mad skills so I bet you can use one of those and sort this out.

Or one of you Dakota donors could be looked at and see if it could be made to work.

one of my friends was doing a 50 plymouth coupe---and had only pieces of the linkage of the vacuum system------i checked the old car yard near here and found a 50,s dodge with an electric motor setup--(original-aftermarket---dont know)---but they plugged right in and worked.....

Might talk to these guys as well

https://www.oldmoparts.com/parts-body.aspx

The problem with mini van rear wipers is the sweep. Most rear wipers have a sweep of around 120-130 degrees, I'm thinking 100 degrees is going to be a lot and the wiper blade might travel off the edges of the windshield.

I have a full wiper system here off a Dakota. I would have to customize nearly every piece to use it, then hog out the wiper post hole in the roof skin from 1/2" diameter to over 3/4" diameter, then make brackets to mount everything. The wiper system on my 48 Plymouth coupe is from a Dakota, this truck would be much more difficult. I was hoping for an easier option.

The 50s cars and the 50s trucks have the wipers mounted under the windshield, these wipers are above the windshield and are in a confined area. I have an old 50s truck wiper motor here, it is 6 volts + ground, and would need to be rebuilt. Then I would be back to making mounting brackets, making linkage, and trying to find the wiper posts that go through the roof skin. That would also mean I would have to find a source for the 50s wiper arms and blades. Gene

These guys will happily rebuild your existing vacuum wipers, which I don't have. That would be option 2 from Vintage Power Wagon. Gene

I used one of those cheap kits from Speedway Motors on one of the gassers I built

Have you used it yet? how does it work?

My truck is fenderless, I don't intend on driving it in the rain, but should I get caught in rain, or rain/snow mix, I want wipers that will do the job. Gene

Years ago I used a rear-hatch wiper assembly from a Subaru Justy on my 37' Dodge pickup. It was one of the few I found, whether OEM or aftermarket that would fit in the small enclosed area above the windshield where the factory wiper was. Due to the size of the Subaru, the sweep was fine.

- EM

on my 38 plymouth coupe, i used a VW bug setup above the windshield. i had to modify the linkage to fit the original vacuum wiper hole spacing, but it was very easy to do. my windshield was a flat, one piece fixed setup.
i don't know how hard that VW setup would be to obtain today.
speaking of minivan wipers, look at some of the small cars or crossovers. i have seen several that had such a small sweep, i wondered why they even bothered to install a wiper.
sorry i don't recall what models or makes they were.

the wiper arms/blades and pivot points on the cars and trucks are probably the same----they both look kind of wimpy but are what was used back then--the arms/blades on my 71 truck look equally wimpy.....

Thanks guys, I'll look into these options.
Keep them coming.
If I find something that works, I will let everyone know. Gene

This is what I looked at using in mine------

http://xtremedist.com/cabwiperset.html#gsc.tab=0

I was born on an island, so I know there are marine 12v wiper kits with multiple options.

A few examples at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=boat+windshield+wiper+kit&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Seems that as I recall when researching wiper arms there are only like 4 industry standard attachments to the pivots. I have Ford wiper arms on my 92 D250 because I wanted the J hook style of blade attachment. So there would be arm options out there.

What about something from a Jeep?

Any solutions for this??

Nothing firm as of this date.
I ran into a transmission issue with the truck late last summer and it has been put on hold until I can resolve the trans issue. Now other things have become a higher priority then the truck. Newport Engineering (might want to check the spelling on that name) has a wiper system designed for this truck for around $400 that is suppose to be a "bolt in" deal, but I'm not sure if it is a complete free standing unit. They have been getting very high reviews for fit and quality and seem like the best option so far, but the $400 price tag is a big bite to chew. Gene

Jeep JK Wrangler ('07-'18 ish) has a tiny rear wiper with about a 90 degree sweep. Your fab skills are near legendary so this should make for an easy "all Mopar family" swap with readily available junkyard parts. I do recall having to try 3 different stores to get the correct blade once though. The arm has a funky style where it attaches to the blade I think.
I have a '39 Dodge coming so this subject is of interest to me, please keep us posted.