Does your Rear Defroster Work?

[larry47us]

My wrench is putting my rear window back in my Targa, and says that the rear defroster in the early cars rarely worked. He said that in Targa's only about 10% of them work in his experience. That over the 30 years, the wires corroded, and they don't work. He said "save the money on the installation"

So what's your experience on the rear defroster on early Targas or Coupes?

larry

[pwd72s]

Hmmm...no targa owners answering yet? Larry, I forgot to mention...I live in Oregon. Rear defrosters are fairly important here...

[gulf908]

Larry,
I speak as a Targa owner of 13 years.I have owned a 1975 Carrera Targa and from day 1 the rear demister wires have only half worked due to mis-installation of the rear screen where the sidewiring was crimped.The solution was to re-install the screen but this means a paint-off job as I understand it.
1. This is a safety issue.Have you ever tried to reverse with the back screen fogged up?or ignored the quaint red & blue lights behind as a marvel of refraction?
2. They worked when the car was new-correct? As these cars have been around for 30 odd years,these problems should have been solved any number of times over and again.The question that arises is whether your wrench is being diligent enough on your behalf.Are you paying for this or is he doing this out of sheer love of working on your car for no return?
Dennis.
ps. Are there any threads on wrench's cute excuses for not doing something thatYOU are paying for?Maybe this can be a starter.

[larry47us]

Dennis:

I hear what you're saying, and I can only base how good a job he is doing by the pictures that he has sent me. I will be able to judge the final result after I get it. So far, I have NOTHING to complain about.

There are many things that he has done that weren't in the contract, as part of his working on this. Pulling the Targa window is one. He should have done it, but he didn't need to. There are other things that he did that I didn't know enough to ask for, or wouldn't have seen after the fact. I don't believe that he is scrimping, though this certainly seems like it, I agree. I think that I'm getting a great deal overall, and he is reaching his limit on "minor but difficult" things.

Honestly, if most of the defrosters don't work, thirty years later, then why bother pushing him to do something that would cost him an additional number of hours, or me an additional few hundred $$? I have seen 5 year old cars with bad rear defrosters. Fixing this one could be problematic. Gotta be practical someplace.

larry

[72targa]

You didn't list the category I would click...

"I don't know - my car never leaves the garage during winter"