"early" 63 Trico 15" wiper blades research

[David L.]

Here is some research that I will share with those who are looking for the correct "early" 1963 Corvette Trico wiper blades.
Pictured are 3 different "shiny" 15" Trico wiper blades WITHOUT the "CAN 63" stamping.

Picture on left:
On the left is GM wiper blade 3764904 used on 59-60 Chevrolets.
In the center is GM wiper blade 3779740 used on 61 Chevrolets.
On the right is GM wiper blade 3819071 used on 62-E63 Chevrolets and E63 Corvettes. The 3819071 wiper blade used on L63-65 Chevrolets and Corvette does have the "CAN 63" stamping.

The 3764904 wiper blade holder is more "heavy duty" than the later blades and has "TRICO" stamped about 1 3/8" to 1 11/16" from each end. The major "joint" is located about 4 3/8" from the top end instead of at the midpoint like the later wiper blades.

The 3779740 wiper blade holder uses an insert with black rubber end caps on each end of the reinforcement.

The 3819071 wiper blade holder is the same as the 3779740 holder EXCEPT there is a "punched square hole" at the top of the holder.
The 3819071 wiper blade holders used on "late" 63-65 Corvettes & Chevrolets have the "CAN 63" stamping on the arm attaching part. These holders use the inserts with the "bumps" (or "dots") and the "U"-clip on the bottom end. The 1963 Corvette assembly manual shows that GM # 3819071 was replaced with GM # 3837832 on 9/20/62 but GM # 3819071 is still shown as the Trico wiper blade for 63-65 Corvettes in my 1963, 1964, and 1965 Chevrolet parts catalogs.

I have found that the Chevrolet passenger side Trico wiper blade holders are bent with more curvature than the driver's side holders and those holders used on 63-65 Corvettes. See picture at right. The top holder is the Chevrolet passenger side holder and is NOT used on the 63-65 Corvettes. The bottom holder is the kind used on the Chevrolet driver's side and 63-65 Corvettes. Apparently the part number is the same for both driver's side and passenger side wiper blades as shown in the passenger car assembly manuals. Does anyone have an explanation?

[Jack H.]

Re: "early" 63 Trico 15" wiper blades research

Dah, what's the 'explanation' you're looking for???

Trico was a well known supplier to most all of the auto manufacturers (including Europeans). You'll find what 'appears' to be the 'same' blade holders with differing degrees of curvature based on OEM spec's to accommodate the various degrees of windshield glass curvature for this/that car.

I've found the MOST curved blade holders to have been rifle shot at Ford cars. The windshield glass on, say Ford Galaxie, was REALLY wrapped at the outside edges...

On the various stamped emboss legends on the blade holders' bayonet clip, I once wrote an article on this for our Chapter Newsletter. The gist of the article was 'Patent Dating Method'.

Basically, the US Patent Office files are open to the public and you can go there via the internet, key in a given patent number and pull a copy of the patent. There, you'll find both the date of application and the date of grant for the patent given on the first page.

Between application and grant, inventions were typically covered by the omnibus 'Pat Pending' notice. Once a patent was granted, the inventor and/or assignee were notified, their responsibility shifted to that of disclosure (by patent number) of their intellectual property right. The grant date therefore sets an approximate time for 'first' manufacture of a patent, by number, embossed item.

My conclusion was the blade holders with three patent numbers + 'CAN 63' emboss, probably didn't show up until late in the '63 model year build or perhaps early in the '64 MY cycle...

If you're interested in reading the article, the Rocky Mountain Chapter puts all of its newsletter on-line for free download. This was a 2003 article and you can simply navigate to the chapter's web site and pull/read...

[David L.]

Re: "early" 63 Trico 15" wiper blades research

Jack,
What I am asking is why is the same GM part number (generally GM # 3837832 for the 15" Trico blade) used for both the driver's side and passenger side wiper blades as shown in the 1963, 1964, and 1965 Chevrolet passenger car assembly manuals. I have collected hundreds of wiper blades from these cars back in the 1980's and 1990's. The passenger side wiper blade on the passenger cars has more curvature because of the curvature of the windshield. This makes sense but why doesn't the Trico wiper blade with more curvature have a different part number? That is the "explanation" that I am looking for.
I scanned through the 6 issues of the 2003 RMC newsletter and found nothing about wiper blades.
Dave

[Jack H.]

Re: "early" 63 Trico 15" wiper blades research

Hum, I still don't 'get it'. What is it I don't get?

Well, mixing parts catalog numbers and AIM PN's generally isn't good. The factory typically had a PN call out in the Corvette AIM books that corresponded to TWO blades in a single package. Service folks sold them separately under a different PN...

From my AIM reading, this is the sequence of Corvette AIM PN's.

(1) 3830603 '63-65E, (until 8/13/64)
(2) 3871085 '65-66E, (from 8/25/64-7/19/65)
(3) 3888296 '66, (from 7/19/65-4/28/66)
(4) 3908118 '67, (from 4/28/66)

There may be some early '63 changes that I've missed, but I think the list is pretty close to the factory AIM sequence of usage over the mid-year era. Plus, items 2 & 3 are also AIM call outs for the lion's share of Chevy passenger cars built in the time interval.

Last, I don't agree that the blades were asymmetric in terms of their curvature on Chevy passenger car vs. Corvette. The swept glass surface area was essentially identical for both the RH and LH blade on cars with opposing sweep wiper arm systems.

[Jack H.]

Re: "early" 63 Trico 15" wiper blades research

On the newsletter archive reference, hey, I was off by a MILE! Try the Mar/April edition of the 2007 newsletter...

[David L.]

Re: "early" 63 Trico 15" wiper blades research

Jack,
You are certainly entitled to your opinion about wiper blades but I still have about 30 to 40 "curved" 1963-1965 Chevrolet (and other car models) 15" Trico "shiny" (passenger side) wiper blades that are useless for Corvette application.
The article in the RMC May/April 2007 newsletter is interesting for rookies but I knew most of this information over 25 years ago when I started researching and collecting midyear Corvette parts.
Dave

[Jim B.]

Re: "early" 63 Trico 15" wiper blades research

David---I know there's no "early" vs. "late" differentiation in the '63 Judging Guide for the holders, but do you know of any generally accepted cutoff date or VIN number? Thanks.

[David L.]

Re: "early" 63 Trico 15" wiper blades research

David---I know there's no "early" vs. "late" differentiation in the '63 Judging Guide for the holders, but do you know of any generally accepted cutoff date or VIN number? Thanks.

Jim,
I have no idea. This would obviously be very difficult to determine even if we had some kind of 63 Corvette wiper blade survey as it's been 47 years and things change. The only person that might have an educated guess is Pete from New Mexico. Unfortunately back in the very early 1980's when I started collection "shiny" Trico wiper blades (as well as Anco's) in the junk yards I did not tag them with the year, model, and approximate date of manufacture of the car. I wish that I did. I did not start tagging junk yard parts until a few years later when I smartened up.
Dave

[Peter L.]

Re: "early" 63 Trico 15" wiper blades research

Dave - As always interesting information. I've had this question asked to me on the curvature of the GM SERVICE and Auto Parts Store TRICO replacement flat top wiper blade holders and for sure the replacement holders with these blades for 1963-1965 with the bright polished finish have more curvature than what originally came on the Corvettes, at least, and the Chevrolet Parts & Accessories Catalogs show the same TRICO blades for the Corvettes and Chevrolet Passenger cars in addition some interesting notes are that my October 1966 P&A Catalog shows the same flat top TRICO blades for 63-65 Corvettes and Pass and the peaked top TRICO blades for 66-67 Corvette and Pass but it does not show a listing for the early 1966 production brushed flat top TRICO blades for either 1966 Corvettes or PASS cars. Probably not worth the trouble for the Parts guys. The P&A Catalog does list the bright polished OE by ANCO holders for 65 Corvette and PASS and brushed OE by ANCO 66-67 holders for both Corvettes and PASS cars.
The curvature of the bright polished TRICO holders available as SERVICE replacements is interesting. I trust they had a way to make the with less curvature for the Corvettes at the TRICO Plant, but as a SERVICE item I'm sure it was much easier to make the "curved" ones because they would work on all the cars but it is true that they looked somewhat out of place on the Corvette but I'm not sure folks back then were that concerned and usually they were not replacing the TRICO blades because if you had them on your car you could buy the refills for them from bot GM SERVICE and the local Auto Parts Store but they were probably replacing the OE ANCOs because GM did not sell replacement refills for the OE ANCO blades and ANCO did not specifically list refills to service those blades. Pete

[David L.]

Re: "early" 63 Trico 15" wiper blades research

my October 1966 P&A Catalog shows the same flat top TRICO blades for 63-65 Corvettes and Pass and the peaked top TRICO blades for 66-67 Corvette and Pass but it does not show a listing for the early 1966 production brushed flat top TRICO blades for either 1966 Corvettes or PASS cars.

Pete,

My 1966 Chevrolet parts catalog (Oct. 1965) does not list any wiper blades for any 1966 models. The 63-65 14 7/8" Trico blades are GM # 3819071.

My 1966 Corvair-Chevy II-Chevelle parts catalog (Jan. 1966) lists GM # 3887568 as the 14 7/8" Trico blades for ALL 66 models (exc. Nova Spt. Cpe.). The Corvette & Chevrolet models are not listed in this catalog.

My 1967 Chevrolet parts catalog (Oct. 1966) lists GM # 3887568 as the 14 7/8" Trico blades for 66 PASS., CORVETTE and 67 PASS.

My 1967 Corvair-Chevy II-Chevelle-Camaro parts catalog (Oct. 1966) list GM # 3887568 as the 14 7/8" Trico blades for 66-67 ALL (exc. NOVA SPT. CPE.).

My 1967 Chevrolet parts catalog (July 1967) lists GM # 3899508 as the 14 7/8" Trico blades for 66-67 PASS., CORVETTE.

GM # 3887568 was replaced with GM # 3899508 in Dec. 1966 as per Chevrolet Parts History.

I think that I agree with you in that the 1966 15" Trico "dull, flat top" blades did not have their own GM part number but I'm still not 100% sure.
I have in one of my many my notebooks that I saw a pair of NOS GM # 3887568 wiper blades at Spring Carlisle (April 1992) that were "dull on top", "shiny underneath", and with "rubber inserts w/dots" for $200. I did not buy them. Unfortunately, I did not note if they had a "flat" or "peaked" cross section. It was 18 years ago and I do not remember.


Dave

[Ronald L.]

Re: "early" 63 Trico 15" wiper blades research

Jack,

You are jumping on my birthday! What data supports the 4/28/66 change-over in part numbers and at what point in the assembly process between 4/28 and 4/29 determined which blade PN that car got???