Electric windshield defogger?

Ok so the heater has been dumped from the Yugo and at some point some one on here pointed me to an electric windshield defogger that was placed in the dash to replace the function of the heater blowing on the windshield but I can't find it and I remember it was in England. So does anyone know where I could find something like that in the USA?

I can't help you find something useful; but I will recommend not getting anything that plugs into a cigarette lighter. (from personal experience)

Don't waste your money on these: 12v defroster

Rain x it inside and out and keep a clean kitchen towel on the dash.

It used to be you could buy rear window defrosters (the kind with wires that stick to the inside of the glass) at any auto parts store. I knew a guy who put one on the inside of the windshield in his VW bug, and he said it worked pretty well once he got used to looking through the wires all the time.

Chances are those kits have gone the way of the dodo bird, though.

Put the heater coil back in? Honestly there is enough heat being generated/wasted by the ineffiency of the IC engine that you shouldn't need to us electric resistance heating.

Modern cars will run the A/C while the controls are in the defrost mode. Even when there is heat being applied to the air stream. (That's how your basement's dehumidifier runs too; cool the air so the moisture condenses out and heat the air back up to room temperature giving you nice dry air).

Are you DDing the Yugo or is it a event vehicle only?

RossD wrote: Put the heater coil back in? Honestly there is enough heat being generated/wasted by the ineffiency of the IC engine that you shouldn't need to us electric resistance heating. Modern cars will run the A/C while the controls are in the defrost mode. Even when there is heat being applied to the air stream. (That's how your basement's dehumidifier runs too; cool the air so the moisture condenses out and heat the air back up to room temperature giving you nice dry air). Are you DDing the Yugo or is it a event vehicle only?

Isn't this his challenge car?

If you can do quick disconnects that are reasonably clean, this is an idea I've thought of too. My first challenge- heat was needed pretty badly- it was a very cold rain during the autocross- and we didn't have a top.

But if one can find a way to unscrew, and use quick disconnects- it should do ok, shouldn't it?

RossD wrote: Are you DDing the Yugo or is it a event vehicle only?

Event only for sure.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: Rain x it inside and out and keep a clean kitchen towel on the dash.

That might work. It don't guess it would fog up much in the few seconds during a run.

I don't know if the price of this is grassroots-relevant, but some supercars like the Saleen S7 and some Koenigseggs have a defogger film on the windshield that heats up. It looks like a very light black tint.

Edit: Check this out, looks like some regular cars had something similar:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quickclear

I have a car that has the dash moved back, no heater box, and no insulation on the firewall. No problem at all with windshield fogging after the initial warmup.

I used a bilge blower (aka "electric supercharger") in the Targa Miata to blow air across the inner surface of the windshield. Worked great in everything but hurricane conditions.

The Taurus had one of those defogger films on the windshield - you can see the sheen on them.

We kept the heater core in the LeMons car and rigged up a bilge blower to replace the (mistakenly discarded) stock blower motor. I was thinking of lightweight alternatives and I see no reason a Ford power steering cooler couldn't be used with a bilge blower and home built nozzle. Explorer P/S cooler:

Just run engine coolant through the PS cooler. Wiping the glass will work, to a point. If the glass is cold it will fog so quick and heavy that there will be big drops.

Keith wrote: I used a bilge blower (aka "electric supercharger") in the Targa Miata to blow air across the inner surface of the windshield. Worked great in everything but hurricane conditions.

I will probably not do anything and see it is going to be a problem then add on of these. Did you mount it on the pillars blowing across the windshield or in the dash?

Curmudgeon wrote: We kept the heater core in the LeMons car and rigged up a bilge blower to replace the (mistakenly discarded) stock blower motor. I was thinking of lightweight alternatives and I see no reason a Ford power steering cooler couldn't be used with a bilge blower and home built nozzle. Explorer P/S cooler: Just run engine coolant through the PS cooler. Wiping the glass will work, to a point. If the glass is cold it will fog so quick and heavy that there will be big drops.

My heater core was in bad shape which is why I threw it away.

We were lucky, ours was good. The reason we put ours back in was I got stuck in a real frog strangler, the windshield fogged white instantly and wiping did no good, it would refog almost immediately. Not to mention the windshield was just far enough away that I could only barely touch it with the back of my fingers. Kinda disconcerting at ~70 MPH surrounded by a buncha no-drivin' LeMons types.

93EXCivic wrote:

Keith wrote: I used a bilge blower (aka "electric supercharger") in the Targa Miata to blow air across the inner surface of the windshield. Worked great in everything but hurricane conditions.

I will probably not do anything and see it is going to be a problem then add on of these. Did you mount it on the pillars blowing across the windshield or in the dash?

I mounted it in the passenger footwell and plumbed it into the factory vents in the dash with dryer ducting.

A Yugo is small enough that a towel should work just fine. Did the same on my Bug for years!

Bryce

Years ago there were little fans with rubber blades that mounted on the dash.
Then there was a glass defroster with wires in the glass that mounted to the windshield with suction cups. Ah, the good old days.

just get one of those rear window stick on grids and learn to drive around the lines?

I've seen old computer fans mounted to the dashboards of cars used for ice racing... same concept sorta.

i've got a rear window defogger for a 74 Monte Carlo out in the shed.. it's an electric fan motor and an electric heating coil in one convenient package that fits right in the rear package tray... look in junkyards- i think this same defogger setup was an option in the whole GM A body lineup from 73-77, and might have even been used in the bigger B bodies, too..

GameboyRMH wrote: I don't know if the price of this is grassroots-relevant, but some supercars like the Saleen S7 and some Koenigseggs have a defogger film on the windshield that heats up. It looks like a very light black tint. Edit: Check this out, looks like some regular cars had something similar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quickclear

The Saleen S7 had the resistive elements bonded into the windshield. The wires were very thin, but you could see them if you looked close. We tried the street car windshield in the S7 race cars, but generally had issues with the speed of operation. The most basic home-built unit you can make it to find a place with alot of heat on the firewall or floor and duct a fan from there to the base of the windshield. It may not be dry air but it does use the waste heat energy to heat/dry the windshield. This saves the extra plumbing in a race car...

In the late '80's Ford had what was called 'Insta Clear'. It was a very thin heater element which was bonded into the windshield and it would almost instantly clear it. Its drawbacks were it used a LOT of power ( the relay for it was a modified Delco starter solenoid!) and it was expensive to replace, at the time a new windshield was nearly a grand. They were easily recognized, from outside the glass had a gold tint to it. They were used mostly on the Taurus/Sable but some found their way into Crown Vics and Grand Marqis. OBTW: radar detectors wouldn't work inside it.

Some newer cars with large windshields have an embedded wire along the bottom of the windshield, like what's used on rear windows. Out of line of site and works on the worst part that fogs up. I've also read someplace that cleaning the inside with foam shaving cream helps reduce fogging. Watch those electric heater w/blowers, make sure they have a temp cutoff. I've seen several cars burn from those when I lived in Alaska.
Aircraft have had similar systems to that Ford Insta Clear. the reason radar detectors didn't work is there is a metallic content inside the glass, that thin heater element. On our helicopters it is a precious metal content, usually gold. Not enough to make it worth while to try to get it out let alone the difficulty in getting it out, just trace elements.

That line at the bottom is actually to keep the windshield wipers from freezing to the glass.