After seeing a number of JDM Fit modders do this to their rides, I thought I'd give it a try myself since I think it looks cool. Took about an hour w/ just a 10mm wrench, a philips screwdriver, and a bit of patience (damn screws were TIGHT). 100% JDM, 100% free -- you're just using the stock parts. Basically, it's just modding the wiper motor to run the wiper in reverse so the arm can start from a vertical resting position, otherwise it functions like it always did. If the author of the original Japanese DIY lets me translate it or use his pics I'll post an English DIY in the near future.

** UPDATE ** I posted the link to the DIY down below, but I'll put it here too.

http://homepages.apci.net/~sir....html

Mine


JDM owners' examples



Modified by Chikubi at 12:14 PM 7/16/2006


Modified by Chikubi at 9:20 PM 7/20/2006

 

whats the point?

 

Looks weird.

I guess not everything JDM is cool.

 

Looks like it's jammed in vertical position.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by eeeKs &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">whats the point?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Functionally, none. Otherwise, pretty much the same point as any aesthetic mod -- I like the way it looks and it makes the car stand out a bit from the crowd around here. If you're used to seeing it always down, than I guess it does look a bit odd I suppose. For me, after living in Japan this is old hat as it's done to many hatches/vans there, and I wanted to add a bit of authentic JDM feel to my car beyond just going out and buying some parts to slap on -- kinda like someone doing high-camber tucked rims/tires on a VIP car.

Some examples on other cars

 

I guess there will be less collection of dirt on the wiper blade

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by metric &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I guess there will be less collection of dirt on the wiper blade </TD></TR></TABLE>

You've got a point there. Also, I'm finding that with the wiper vertical I have a bit more open view in the rearview mirror as the wiper is tucked up out of my line of site. You don't even notice you have one anymore, which is nice.

 

YEAH! That's the spirit. I just got permission from the JDM DIY's author to use his pics for an English version, so give me a few days and I should have one up here, at FitFreak, and on my website.

 

The reason why the Japs changed the position of the rear wiper to vertical position is due to dust and snow. If you notice the horizontal wiper actually holds a lot of dust on the blades.

 

OK, finally got a chance to complete the DIY for the coversion. I wrote it with beginners in mind, so if you know what you're doing already I'm sure you can just skim through the steps and get what you need. Here's the link:

http://homepages.apci.net/~sir....html

Enjoy!

 

sorry homeboy ur website don't work.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by koolkevin1107 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">sorry homeboy ur website don't work. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, I apologize -- the provider that hosts my page has been up and down the last few days due to severe (really severe) storms causing outages, etc. in the area. Just keep checking it over the next few days and I'm sure it'll be back up soon.