Original RX-7 Wiper Blades
 

Let's start with a little background first. Our cars originally came with a drivers side wiper blade that contained a spoiler! Now I know most of you are too young, or maybe you're too old, to remember that bit of trivia. So, here is a picture of what I recall it looked like:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...2fef3e91bd.jpg
The first time I changed blades on my 7 was 21 years ago during a rain storm. My trusty local WalMart only had plain jane blade replacements, so I grabbed them, took off my OEMs, and when I got home I carefully stored them in the garage/storage room/workshop/laundry room/man cave for 25 years thinking, "Once this car becomes a collectors item these original wiper blades will make me rich!!!" Well, Seven Stock 20 is here and the time has come to cash in on my good forsight. Only problem is, I can't find the suckers. Does anyone remember these blades? Did the spoiler screw on like the one in this picture? Did the spoiler cover the entire length of the rubber wiper? Does anyone still have one of these?

You can still (at least a year ago) get the driver's side wiper blade new from Mazda with the wing and everything. Bought one for my car when I found out.

Email Ray and ask him.

Dale

Dale,
It is good to know you have one. I can tell the people at the home that I didn't make it up, and I don't need my medication adjusted. Could you take a picture of this rare and highly sought after item? OK, maybe not so rare, and maybe Ray is the only one who is going to make money off of these, and maybe I do need my medication adjusted. I was really hoping that I would be the only one at Seven Stock with original wiper blades. But, a picture would help my search if Ray no longer has these in stock. Thanks!

Does anyone remember actually removing the rubber blade from the assembly and trimming a new one to fit?

There was a thread on this a while back. I had bought a bunch of the inserts as I too still have mine.

Was their a specific reason why Mazda added a spoiler to the wiper blade?

Mazda added it to make the car faster...duh. ;-)

I still have mine also but the inserts are shot. Does Mazda still sell the insert?

Nick

The insert is a regular insert, you can get them anywhere. I recommend PIAA wiper blades and inserts, they last FOREVER and work awesome. The set on my daily driver has been going for 3 years or so now!

The wing is to keep the wiper blade down at speed. May also help some aerodynamics or wind noise when the wipers are at rest.

Dale

I have it on good authority that there were two reasons for the windshield wiper spoiler. First, Mazda engineers found that when driving in the rain at speeds above 140 mph the wiper blades tended to lift off the windshield. With the addition of the spoiler those suckers stayed glued down all the way up to top speed, allowing the driver to contemplate other things like, "Why am I driving in the rain at 140mph?" The second reason, and this was just fortuitous, they found that the spoiler increased down force by 0.00002% while decreasing drag by 0.000003%. As you can see the windshield wiper spoiler was a no brainer and anyone driving a third gen without one is just an idiot!

Is the 'R' model wiper spoiler bigger? Is the 99 spec and Spirit 'R' wiper spoiler adjustable? ;)

F that regular ish, imma get me a MazdaSpeed GT-C wiper spoiler dawg!

Nick

I checked with my local dealer a while back and there are still a lot of them around...or were at that time.

I'd taken mine off a while back, here's a picture of it. The 'spoiler' is about 3" shorter than the blade. It does screw on...just like what you posted.

I still have mine too. And I found it in the shed last year and laid it out, hopefully I haven't forgotten where it is haha. Maybe I'll see if I can swap it over when I get home. SWEET!

Picture of one on the car?

OEM wiper spoiler on my car (hood open)

Thanks Adam, never seen one on the car before.

I must have this. I wonder if my local dealership has any in stock. mdp, let us know what you find out!

Thanks Eslai.
By the way I did an informal survey at Seven Stock. Based on the survey 8.8% of current 3rd Gen RX-7s still have their wiper blade spoilers. That means that means that 91.2% of you are driving around in rain storms at 140 miles per hour without any windshield wipers!!! :eek:

lol...well, at about 80 the drops don't hit the windshield any more...

If you're talking about the insert, there's thousands of them out there. Type into a search engine "mazda DB09 67 33 9U" and they are just littering the 'Net.
The blade itself might be a different story.

Nah, I need the whole wiper with the spoiler on it and everything. Somewhere along the way, my original wipers were swapped out it seems!

I was able to get entire modern wiper blades that have the spoiler on the LH one - Autozone I think.

Here is a little wiper spoiler eye candy from Seven Stock:

A well used wiper blade on a Vintage Red FD
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...e504901d77.jpg


A beautiful Silverstone Metalic with a like new spoiler
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...67dce13fcb.jpg


And for your viewing pleasure, the windshield wiper spoiler on the 787B (:blush: correction this is a 767B! It's still a cool car!)
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...0de7d1eb9e.jpg

And one more, all tucked away on Friday night awaiting the start of Seven Stock 20 in the morning:
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...cd371d44ae.jpg