Heretofore, various cowl-covered windshield wiper assemblies have been proposed. For example, Feller U.S. Pat. No. 2,936,477 discloses a housing which is vertically slidably mounted beneath a cowl panel, and a series of levers connected between the cowl panel and the front wall of the housing for sliding the cowl panel forwardly upon elevation of the housing to raise the windshield wipers to usable height.
Heiler U.S. Pat. No. 3,226,756 and Ziegler U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,195 each discloses a pair of hinged covers which are pivoted upwardly away from the bottom edge of the windshield to permit the wipers to ride up a curved ramp to the windshield.
Kuraoka U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,462 discloses a cover structure for a windshield wiper assembly, wherein oppositely disposed cowl-plates are lowered and pivoted forwardly under the hood to provide spaces through which two wiper blades are actuated.
Souma et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,876 discloses a cowl-louver which is either slidably movable forwardly beneath a hood to permit the wiper assembly to be pivoted into a usable position in the opening provided by the displaced louver, or pivoted along with the wiper assembly, with the wiper arm comprising two pivotally interconnected segments, and having a wiper blade on one of the segments raised by a pivotally actuated panel into alignment with the windshield.
Yamamoto U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,199 discloses a cowl panel which is shiftable and pivotable to uncover the windshield wipers.
Onda et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,962,564 discloses a pair of scissor-like link arrangements having rollers on the ends thereof for rolling in guides to raise and lower oppositely disposed cowls and windshield wiper assemblies.
Okazaki U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,993 discloses a cowl cover with linkage for lifting and pivoting same to provide an opening for the actuation of the windshield wipers wherein the blade is guided along a guide plate to the windshield.
Charng U.S. Pat. No. 5,065,474 discloses an adapter for mounting virtually any wiper blade assembly on virtually any wiper arm, with such blade assembly adapted to follow the windshield curvature.