66 coupe #03507. October 20 1965 build date. Should the wiper blades be the bright wipers like the 1965 or the brused or dull wipers like the later 1966's had? NCRS judging guide states they should be dull but this is an original car with polished blades. Thanks for your thoughts.


[Modified by L75, 9:07 AM 8/6/2002]

 

L75, I should keep my mouth shut here because mid-years are not my area...HOWEVER, I can make a few general comments. :D

If it were me, I wouldn't worry about it if you know the history of the car, and it has been maintained in original condition. Your car is a very early 66, which means it could very well have 65 parts on it.

The fact is, in spite of all the NCRS judging manuals and literature that may seem to indicate the contrary, GM DID NOT throw out perfectly good parts simply because they ran out of that model year car on which to install them. If they had a few hundred pairs of polished 65 Corvette wiper blades left over from the prior model year, they sure weren't going to throw them out...they would very likely be installed on the first 66s until the supply was exhausted.

I guess another option would have been to send the left-overs to service parts, but that would have meant all kinds of problems in getting them properly packaged and labeled. WHO KNEW that thirty-five years later, people would be getting down close and looking at their judging manuals, and saying "AH HA...wiper blades are supposed to be brushed stainless steel."

NCRS judging manuals are written by highly observant, detail-oriented people, but they can only write down what they have seen. No one claims to have seen all the 66 wiper blades that were installed, only that they have seen a bunch of them, and they were the brushed finish in all cases they have seen. If this is truly a factory anomaly, then you don't need to worry; knowledgeable judges, particularly in the mid-year crowd, will very likely know about the exception.

 

According to Noland Adams, page 322 in his restoration guide, he states,"It wasn[t until 2-12-66 that most of the specifications changed from "bright" to "dull" or "lee brush finish". These changes referred to the rivets, screws, and the die cast zinc head, the only part that had retained a bright finish one the stainless steel extensiona arm. Since it took some time to implement such a change, it was probably lat March 1966 before the parts could have reached the St Louis assembly line. That's the approximate time when serial number 118000 (18,000) was assembled."
I hope this will help you. It would appear that it would be correct for your car to have the bright wiper arms. My car was a Dec 65 car and it too has the bright wiper arms.