Handy Project #57
I was very glad we finally got some rain around here yesterday.

After several weeks of noticing how horrible my windshield wipers had become when trying to wash off the windshield of the Jeep, I finally got around to replacing the wipers on Sunday.

Having grown up watching my dad wrestle with putting new blades on all the cars in our family, I had put this off with the Jeep because I was dreading the whole experience. He would spend hours out in the garage with the pliers and those wobbly rubber blades, forcing them through those tiny grips, cutting up his hands and fingers in the process. I remember one time he had recently replaced the blades, and as we traveled through a rain storm in the family car, one blade slowly inched it's way off the end of the metal wiper as the blades went back and forth across the window. Pretty soon, the blade was flapping in the rain and the metal wiper was scraping on the windshield. The rubber blade eventually broke off and we were stuck in the rain with only one good blade. Dad was a little mad, of course.

I had never done this blade replacement job myself. My last car went three years with the same blades because I knew at the end of the Smart Buy agreement on the car, I'd be turning it in, bad windshield wiper blades and all. Why put myself through the frustration of replacing the blades on a car that isn't really mine?

But, the blades on the Jeep needed replacing in a bad way, and the Jeep is a keeper. So I swallowed hard and headed to Wal-Mart this weekend to purchase new blades. Dreading it every step of the way.

When I hit the windshield wiper aisle, however, I was suddenly sent into a fit of joy. Well, actually I just kind of smiled to myself. The aisle was full of 'dad' type men looking at automotive things. I didn't want to appear silly or too happy to have discovered what I just disovered. 'Joy' seemingly isn't something to show when hanging out in the automotive section of Wal-Mart.

Anyway, apparently you can buy THE ENTIRE WIPER BLADE, metal part and all!! Why has no one told me this before? There were rows and rows of them! Sure, it's a couple bucks more than just the rubber thingies that slide into the metal part already on you car. But to me, it seemed worth it to replace the whole metal part, rather than wrestle with trying to shove that rubber thingy onto the blade. I looked through the handy Winshield Wiper Blade book to figure out which size blade would fit the Jeep, and I got the heck out of there. I was very excited about my purchase.

Then, I got home and looked at the blades I'd just bought. The thought hadn't occured to me that it might be more difficult to take the entire blade off and put a new one on to the Jeep. As I looked at the instructions, I realized the pictures weren't very clear, and I would really prefer my Dad to do his 'dad' job and get the blades onto my Jeep.

Of course, he lives in an entirely different state than I live in, and would probably not be available or willing to hop on a plane to fly down here and change out my wiper blades. Not to mention, I was now slightly embarrased that I had spent a little extra money on blades that I did not know how to put on the Jeep, when he would probably have told me to save some money and do it the hard, old-fashioned way like he used to do.

Of course, he also drives a Lexus now and probably has Automatic Wiper Blade Replacement coverage that includes people to handle wiper blade maintenance for him.

Anyway, I buckled down and analyzed the drawings on the blade packaging, comparing it to the blades on the Jeep. The first step was determining which blades I had, and which instructional picture they fit on the package, since the replacement blades were designed to fit no less than 108 different varieties of wiper blades on any given automobile anywhere on the planet, which can fit on a car in 108 different ways.

I went inside to get my toolbox, thinking that this was going to be a major project. I saw pins and joints and wires and whatnot, and I knew this was a job for some of my handy tools. It would take some time and effort to decipher the instructions and skillfully extract the current blade, then replace it with the new blade. But I was up for the challenge. After all, I successfully painted my bathroom, which nearly killed me. I can handle wiper blades. What a sense of accomplishment I will feel when I have successfully switched out my wiper blades! I probably would deserve some sort of award. At least a plaque. Maybe a gold star . . .

I lifted the first blade from the Jeep and carefully examined the mechanism. It appeared intricately attached to the vehicle, finely crafted and exquisite in every detail. It was hard to tell exactly where it attached to the arm, and it was definitely unclear how I would maneuver it off . . . .

Oh wait. I think if I pull this way, yep, it just slides off with a neat little 'click'. Huh. That was easy.

And yep, the new blade just clicks right into place.

Ok, so 1.5 minutes later, the old blades were off and the new ones were on. Literally the easiest car maintenance thing I've ever done.

And after yesterday's jaunt in the rain, they seemed to stay in place AND effectively keep the rain off my windshield.

Handy Project #57: done.

C.T.