My car was supposed to have a new windscreen fitted at National Windscreens on Saturday morning. Dropped the car off and got a phonecall about 40 minutes later saying they can't get the wiper arms off! They refused to use their wiper removal tool on the driver side arm due to the fact there isn't enough space in doing so without causing scratches/damage. They asked if I wished for them to use the tool and I of course refused and insisted I'd get them off myself and rearrange for the windscreen replacement another time. I then asked if they had used any penetrating oil (WD40 etc.) and they advised they weren't allowed to use them in their workshops so not to affect the condition of the air or the bonding treatment. Fair enough I thought.
So I got home and got the 17mm socket out. Nuts came off a treat, "What was all the fuss about?" I thought. I soaked them in WD40 and let them soak, heated them up with a heat gun (as carefully as possible without melting the scuttle panel), wedging a balljoint removal fork underneath (causing a fresh crack in the lower part of windscreen), knocking the arm with a mallet, knocking the spindle with a mallet and extension...several cuts and grazes across my fingers later I gave up.
So has anyone got any bright ideas or suggestions that may be of any use or experienced this issue before? I sprayed some more WD40 on the spindles on Saturday morning before putting the nuts and plastic covers back on just to let it soak it all up and going to have another attempt later on today hopefully. So tempted to buy a proper wiper removal tool, but National Windscreens insisted the one they had would damage/scratch the scuttle which has put me off it for the time being to be honest.
Thanks in advance, Azeem.