The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk driving in the rain

Hey, it's me again. I've was driving out in the rain this evening when a strange thing happened, the entire cab fogged up! I was driving into Sidney and suddenly it got harder and harder to see. I'm just lucky I had some McDonald's brand napkins in my glovebox for just such an occasion. It was a good time though, manouvering that vaccuum knob on the dash while stepping on the gas pedal just right so the wipers didn't die, while at the same time steering and wiping off the condensation with a napkin. Just out of question though, did Chevrolet originally have a better system than this? Was there possibly a "Chevrolet" embroidered chamois available (haha), or was there an early defroster? My truck has a homemade heater in it, so I can't tell. I won't be looking to replace anything yet though, since the restoration hasn't reached the cab, but I probably should find out beforehand. Any info...?

I don't know specifically about a 1st gen. 55; I'm a relative newby with only experience on my own 58 Chevy. However, the 58 came with three tpes of heaters/defrosters. The one that I have is mounted under the glove box and will either blow hot air at your legs out of a vent on the side of the heater, or through a vent between the dash and the windshield that runs the length of the windshield, depending on the position of a slider switch on the heater itself. Now, does this work well as a defroster/defogger? No, because it is basically recirculating the moist air already in the cab, only at a wamer temperature that sort of keeps it from condensing on the windows. In fairness, I think that you are supposed to open the vent on that side to let air in from the outside (the intake on the heater is pointed right at the right side vent).

Use Rain-X Anti Fog on the interior glass. It works great and this will never happen again.
[img]http://www.midwayautosupply.com/images/rainx/af21212_3X.jpg[/img]

A little Windex or straight amonia will keep that from happening for a while.

I've heard good things about the Rain-X product, as well.

Amen...sure does prevent scratched up windshields

Thruwurkin
Kennewick, WA

Ok, it sounds like there's actually a solution out there. I think the napkin corporations of Canada will have to take a step down to the Windex corporation on this one, or of course this Anti-Fog system. I still think it would have been cool to have a factory "Chevrolet" chamois though.

There's got to be more to this than just not enough rain-x on the windshield. Did you have the heater cranked and on defrost the entuire time? Did the fogging start just after you had just started up the heater? It could have been that the heater got hot enough to start drying out the moisture in the air in the cab, causing the airborn moisture to condensate on the coldest part of the truck, the windshield. (jeez I almost sound like I should know what I'm talking about:))
When it finally stops raining around here run the truck until warm and then crank on the heater and see what happens. I know that even in my wife's Benz, the windshield will fog for a few seconds when we crank on the defrost, then the h-vac system kicks in and dries things out.

WOW Call me a "mis-informed dud" because I never knew about this product.

However now that I have been given the scoop.... its too late CUZ... I installed an OLD AIR A/C and dehumidified heater which blows that fog away.

Cliff59

The Rain-X anti fog does work well.

There is a defroster in the cab, the heat diverts off the box to the window.

-W

I had a truck in the tropics that didn't have a/c. The defroster didn't help with condensation/fogging of the glass. For that you need dehumidified air, like from an a/c system, or the rain-x anti-fog stuff, which I found to work quite nicely.

Did the fogging start just after you had just started up the heater?

Well, I don't have any sort of working heater to speak of, the piece of crap that's in there was home made and since it doesn't work anyways, I unplugged it and installed my stereo system on it's power supply. As for the fogging up, it's always had a less drastic version of this problem, but just not as bad as the other night, which was brutal by the way. I don't know, maybe it was just the intensity of the moisture in the air? Anyways I think I'm going to try the Rain-X stuff, just to make sure it doesn't happen again, or at least less drastically!

I had a 55 1st panel with factory heat/defrost. I can tell you from experience that it SUCKED! If the weather was cold I had to let the truck run for 20 minutes with the fan on high to clear the windshield and heat the cab. The cab would never get warm if I didn't do that. If you had a factory heater it wouldn't be much better than what you have now. Good Luck!!

Now that I think of it.. the night you mentioned this happening was pretty humid. Maybe it was the extra moisture in the air that night that made it fog worse than normal.
BTW - Your truck wouldn't have the personalized plate 'hey you' or something like that and have signal lights on the roof would it? Saw this truck twice today. Guy driving had short RED hair.

Well, my signal lights are on the back of the cab. Also, I have 2 different licence plates, a vintage one with the number "C29-001" and a modern one with the number "5948-FK". My truck is also in the gallery under http://www.stovebolt.com/gallery/patterson_wesley_1955.html If you attended the Cruise-In at Royal Oak last night, you may have seen my truck. It was parked around the corner in the "nose-bleed" section.

I have drove old cars for years in humid conditions and have had this problem numerous times. I started carrying a towel in each car. It serves for two purposes 1 to wipe the windscreen and 2 on those hot days to wipe my forhead. I didn't know of the rain-x so now I'll just use the towels on myself.

Living in the land of ice and snow we fight this kind of problem too often. Lumbergh is on the right track. It's the difference in temperature from the inside of the cab and outside the cab. Think of all the moisture held in the cab (wet rug, humidity, breath, etc.)then touching the cold windshield. It condenses and there's the fogged window. It may happen to the dash or anywhere else that's colder than the moisture laden air. We may not notice it elsewhere as much because we're trying to see through the window. The window works as a condensor.
I have been told to run cold air on a window and it won't fog as much. When you put the defroster on your new vehicles the air conditioning comes on to clear the moisture. Of course it is cold and dehumidified. I don't know if this makes sense but it does make a difference in my vehicles.
Rain-X is great.
Learned this trick from one of my students - Try waxing your windows for winter and the ice and snow comes off much easier. Don't know about waxing inside for defrosting.
Rick

OB55 - I haven't made it to the cruise night yet. If I brought Big Red I wouldn't even be in the nose bleed section. and nope.. it certainly wasn't you I saw on Friday.
BTW - If a transit driver honks and wave (friendly like) it's probably me. I'll be doing a #70 in a DoubleDecker 4 nights a week thru the summer.