Years ago I remember puzzling over a... Civic race car I think it was, how it had wires in the windshield. Either it was a "Canada thing" or he may have adapted a rear window to the front. Regardless, he had electric defrost in his windshield.
Years ago I remember puzzling over a... Civic race car I think it was, how it had wires in the windshield. Either it was a "Canada thing" or he may have adapted a rear window to the front. Regardless, he had electric defrost in his windshield.
In reply to kb58:
http://www.heatedwindscreens.com/acatalog/honda-heated-windscreens.html
Wow, these are a lot cheaper than the ones I was looking at!
On my 510 I draw air from the back of the oil cooler thru a bilge blower I race in mission B C Canada lots of rainy cool, days works great
You could do it like emilio with the 25hours of T hill cars, stock or some other random heater core with a slim line radiator fan on the back connected to the stock defrost pipes.
Don't use regular RainX on the inside of the windshield, they make an anti-fog solution for that.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Fog? Polish it with dawn.
+1 Works very well! A little dab of Dawn on a damp rag. Wipe inside of windshield. Done!
I just got this little guy http://store.bimmerworld.com/bimmerworld-front-windshield-defroster-kit-p2043.aspx
Last year's December ChumpCar race at VIR was about 32* and rain/sleet. The window fogged up pretty badly; pointing one of our driver fans (3" hose , bilge blower) at it worked very well.
I vote the brilliant "rag on a stick" option, or the interior wiper. In all my years of driving things made as far back as the 60's, I have had zero luck defogging a windshield with heat, whereas a few seconds with the A/C compressor on clears it in a snap, but I'm guessing you won't be running an A/C compressor.
ross2004 wrote: I just got this little guy http://store.bimmerworld.com/bimmerworld-front-windshield-defroster-kit-p2043.aspx Last year's December ChumpCar race at VIR was about 32* and rain/sleet. The window fogged up pretty badly; pointing one of our driver fans (3" hose , bilge blower) at it worked very well.
Let us know how well that works!
Is it customizable to fit different size windshields?
That is exactly what I want!
Thanks!
Rob R.
In reply to ross2004:
What is it, just a stick on resistive heating wire setup? The description at Bimmerworld is pretty weak and they don't show the actual product. What's the amperage requirements?
Keith Tanner wrote: I run a bilge blower that pulls air from the factory fresh air inlet and blows out the defroster vents. Dryer ducting runs between the blower and the lightweight plastic ducting. No heating, just lots of fresh air. Works pretty well. It didn't work well enough in the hurricane we had during the Targa, but not much would have.
I was hoping you'd chime in. Any details on the bilge blower?
1988RedT2 wrote: I vote the brilliant "rag on a stick" option, or the interior wiper. In all my years of driving things made as far back as the 60's, I have had zero luck defogging a windshield with heat, whereas a few seconds with the A/C compressor on clears it in a snap, but I'm guessing you won't be running an A/C compressor.
I can count on 4 fingers the number of cars i've had with a/c, and none of them sans a/c had a problem clearing a windshield.
But no, no a/c compressor. No heater core. Mostly just interested in non-heater-core solutions at the moment.
Knurled wrote: In reply to kb58: http://www.heatedwindscreens.com/acatalog/honda-heated-windscreens.html Wow, these are a lot cheaper than the ones I was looking at!
This plus dawn. Done?
pres589 wrote: In reply to ross2004: What is it, just a stick on resistive heating wire setup? The description at Bimmerworld is pretty weak and they don't show the actual product. What's the amperage requirements?
That's exactly what it is. The strips are pretty good size, you cut off what you don't need. It should fit most car windshields well enough. It draws 18A and the switch is on a timer, 10 mins I think. That's a little annoying but I think it can be reprogrammed by the manufacturer if you send it in. It comes with good instructions and seems pretty straight forward to install, which I plan on doing next weekend. Lexan safe according to BimmerWorld as well.
In reply to ross2004:
I'm wondering what it would be like on a street car. Switch this on once the car is started, have some warmth right away before the heater core has anything to contribute. With the proper relay logic it should be easy to set up so the thing can't be left on if the car isn't running.
I'm sure it would work just fine, and would definitely help with ice/frost melt happening quicker. Might look a little goofy.
Www.frostfighter.com
They make different size grids you can order as a kit.
poopshovel wrote: More details? If this is a "pre auto-x run" scenario, I vote battery box + AC inverter + hair dryer. Otherwise, "rag on a stick" has worked well for us at LeChump races.
Experiment in bare-bones vehicle and how well they work in the year 2015.
But otherwise, yeah... autocross, track, transit stages, etc.
Is the resistance towards putting a heater core back in it illogical? Absolutely. The whole car is illogical.
A lot of this stems back to the previous "I let the magic smoke out" thread i posted a couple weeks ago.
Swank Force One wrote:Keith Tanner wrote: I run a bilge blower that pulls air from the factory fresh air inlet and blows out the defroster vents. Dryer ducting runs between the blower and the lightweight plastic ducting. No heating, just lots of fresh air. Works pretty well. It didn't work well enough in the hurricane we had during the Targa, but not much would have.I was hoping you'd chime in. Any details on the bilge blower?
Not specifically, it's been years since I put it in. Get the one with the most CFM you can package. They're everywhere. Mine's an inline style.
moparman76_69 wrote: Www.frostfighter.com They make different size grids you can order as a kit.
That's who makes what Bimmerworld sells.
If you are looing for a very passive system (ie no coolant) then try to build a box around/near the exhaust and plumb a hose up towards the inside of the windshield. If the exhaust runs near the floor/firewall anywhere, then you can just pull the air from the area that gets hot.
Exhaust doesn't pass anywhere near the firewall, or even underneath it, unfortunately. (Fortunately?)
I just used my stock heater core and ziptied the levers into perma defrost mode and used only the HVAC air plumbing for the defrosters. Then I ebayed a marine fan or something for about 10 bucks and attached it to the inlet of where the factory blower (or ac box) would normally attach to the heater core. then run a simple toggle switch to control it.
I fiberglassed the fan into the heater core inlet and used home depot ducting to tube the inlet of the fan to the stock location, again with the help of zip ties. and duct tape.
see ice racing photo in avatar, works great! (loud as balls though)
Rain-x makes a "fog-x". I use it in the rally cars. It works amazingly well.
The most hilarious part is that not everyone does it, never understood why!
In reply to Swank Force One:
Please be building a land speed record VW with an FT2 in the back.
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