Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 10, 1990 TAG: 9003133631
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Wiper blades? Those boring, rubber and metal deals that take the water off your windshield when it rains? What could possibly be cool about wiper blades?
The colors, for one thing. The styles, for another. Wiper blades are the latest way - well, one of the latest ways - of making a statement with your vehicle. Sounds silly, true, but it's better than exceeding the speed limit, don't you think?
Understand that the move toward neon-flashy wiper blades and other accoutrements has come to these parts with a force somewhat less than that generated by a tidal wave. This is Roanoke, where change arrives slowly, if at all.
But if you keep your eyes peeled, you might just see a Nissan 300ZX with bright white double wiper blades mounted on thick white bases called "boots." You might spot Darrell Booth's black 1988 Isuzu pickup truck, with its pink mesh tailgate, its pink double wiper blades on pink boots and the funny little spoiler-type blades, also pink, called wiper aids, atop the wipers themselves.
You'll see the pinstriping on the side panels, the jagged decorations like lines of an electrocardiogram running across each headlight, the pink-painted grille and, of course, the $1,000 stereo system and car phone inside.
You'll see Darrell, 18, who works at his family's business, Wayne's Imported Automotive, a garage on Franklin Road in southwest Roanoke.
He'll tell you he's got $13,000 or more tied up in his vehicle. He'll admit it's a lot of money, but he'll say it's worth it: "I get a lot of looks."
Precisely. A large part of owning a car is making an impression. That's as true for the teen-ager like Darrell as it is for the executive in his $50,000 BMW. And double-bladed, neon-colored windshield wipers definitely make an impression. Like, you see them, and you ask, "Why?"
Why two blades instead of one? Why spoiler-style plastic squares on each blade?
Let's ask Larry Clark of Rally Manufacturing in Miami, Fla. How did wiper blades get so hot, Larry?
"Essentially, in our product development, we take a look at trends in fashion, in automotive accessories, trends in other sporting gear, and then the product development team sits down and kicks it around and that's how it got started."
The blades, Larry, tell us about the blades.
"Double blades are a very radical look for windshield wipers," he said. "We like to say that if one blade works, two work better."
Is that true?
"It pretty much is. A wiper naturally establishes a wear pattern. Pits develop in the rubber over a period of time, and the second blade generally doesn't get them in the same area.
"We like to say the first blade cleans, and the second blade cleans up."
All right. But what about those spoiler things? Strictly ornamental, right, Larry?
"The wiper aids grab some of the apparent wind from the forward motion of the vehicle and help keep the wiper arm in better position for better wiper-to-windshield contact."
Uh-huh.
"Generally, the intersection of the windshield to the hood is a natural vacuum area. The wiper aids, with their higher louvers, grab some of the apparent air that might be missed."
Uh-huh.
Well, nobody said everything has to be functional. It's enough when you're young to be flashy and different, and Rally's Kokomo blades - the neon pinks, greens and yellows - will definitely make you that.
Not that Rally is the only company that makes the things. But double wipers have been their best-known product for the past three or four years, starting with their Euro line of black, white and red kits and continuing with the colorful Kokomos, introduced in September at a big aftermarket auto accessories show in Chicago.
You can buy this stuff at auto parts stores and install it yourself. At Advance Auto Parts in Roanoke, the Kokomo double blades go for $15.99 per pair. The wiper aids are $2.99. The boot things are $4.99. So you can make yourself visible for less than $25, for starters.
And you can increase the dazzlement by adding sun shades, door guards, license plate frames, the works.
Sparkly stick-on window graphics depicting palm trees or the word "hot" or "ultra hot" go for $9.99 - entirely reasonable sums to entry-level employees who want to make a statement.
Darrell Booth's brother, Kenneth, 25, has the white double blades on his '86 Mazda pickup truck. He's got your fog lights, your white-painted grille, your graphic art pasted across the back window. His truck has been lowered, like Darrell's. And its door handles have been shaved down to invisibility. You pop open the door with an exterior button.
It's a nice truck. Not as nice as Darrell's, Kenneth admits, and not as nice as he'd like it to be. But it was one of the first in these parts to go California custom, as far as he knows.
Darrell's truck, meanwhile, is not as nice as it's going to be in a month or two, when he paints the bottom two-thirds pink.
Does pink make you think of Pepto-Bismol or Mary Kay? Man, you're out of it. Ain't but one word for pink these days. You got it - hot.
by CNB