Onto a more traditional mod, a wiper delete
I hate rear wipers, there's absolutely no need for them on a street car in Australia. Maybe on a flat rear screen like a Prius they still have some value, but not on vertical van rear windows.
The Traffic has twin doors, so it has twin wipers, but the wipers aren't mirrored, which would look better, but instead the look like this:
All they really do is add weight and make cleaning more difficult. Because they're in sheet metal, simple rubber plugs weren't really an option.
I chanced across stainless steel blanking plugs for kitchen sinks. They're available in raw stainless, or white powder coat. If you plan on painting them, go for powder coat. You'll get better adhesion than etch primer on stainless.
Since powder coat is a plastic, I started with adhesion promoter, then primer, and finally colour, the turned out like this:
Although they have a rubber backing gasket, I still wanted to protect my paint (should I ever want to fit the wipers back or it I find smaller blanking plugs - these are just a tiny bit bigger than they need be), so I covered the holes in my sheet metal with helicopter tape. This should also keep any water out as only the threads penetrate the tape.
On the inside, I didn't want metal to metal contact either, so I used a big rubber plumbing washer. This further helps the seal and means the wing nut is unlikely to back out.
The finished mod from inside:
and outside:
~2.4kg (5lbs) saved, looks better and the windows are easier to clean
Today
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