Our Story

When attending the major hot rod shows across the United States, you often see New Port Engineering with their products prominently displayed in the trade show. Bob Galbraith, a life long gear head, began attending the Street Rod Nationals in Peoria, Illinois in 1970 and has not missed one since.

His wife, Linda Galbraith, began attending with Bob in 1975 and has only missed a handful over the ensuing years. Bob and Linda, and their children, have logged many miles in their hot rod Model A’s, spending most summers on the road attending hot rod shows.

In 1987, Bob started New Port Engineering retailing and installing chassis components from Pete and Jake’s, TCI, The Deuce Factory, Vintage Chassis Works and other manufacturers.

While selling other manufacturer’s components he decided to manufacture a line of custom components for Hot Rod Model A’s. In 1988, Bob agreed to distribute an electric drive motor to replace the vacuum drive motor commonly used to operate the windshield wipers on cars and trucks made in the thirties, forties, and fifties, for an independent group of investors.

The original company suffered from a number of problems and was stillborn after the first show. Seeing a need in the specialty automotive community for electric replacement windshield wiper drive motors, Bob started with a clean sheet of paper and designed a simple and compact drive unit. The new model could be easily installed in most vintage vehicles without modification to the original vehicle.

The Clean Drive Wiper Drive was born.

Beginning with three vehicle applications – 1939, 1941, and 1948 Chevrolet passenger cars – the Clean Drive Wiper was displayed at the Street Rod Nationals in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1989. From the beginning the concept revolved around the idea of a true bolt-in unit, compatible with OEM linkages and mounting brackets.

The first three applications have progressed to a product line covering over 180 light car and truck applications. Each new product is designed and tested on the actual vehicles by our own in-house product designers. Components are laser cut, CNC machined, and TIG welded in jigs and fixtures to ensure accuracy and consistent fitment to every vehicle.

The product line also includes the Clean Wipe System, a complete system featuring mounting brackets, linkage arms, and wiper transmissions. It is designed to operate on two wiper arms and blades in vehicles originally equipped with a single vacuum wiper motor.

You can look forward to many more new vehicle applications as the next generation of Galbraiths continues the tradition of excellence in production and customer service.
We would like to take this time to thank all of our loyal customers over the years for your business.

Remember, don’t let a little rain keep your hot rod in the garage! Drive through it, not around it!