Car Cover

[bigmitch]

I know this is a little of topic but looking at possibly getting a fitted car cover for my sons car. It has been primarily garaged but now that he is in the Navy I'll be taking him the car in May to Florida. Now it will be an outside car and seeing as he'll be only driving it a couple times a week while in school would like to get a cover to help keep the elements off it when possible. The covers I've been looking at are fleece lined to prevent scratching. Looking for opinions as to the pros and cons and recommendations on which covers to look at and the ones to stay away from. Any help and info would be greatly appreciated.

[Dr_Pain]

Covercraft makes a very nice cover but any cover requires 2 people to install to minimize scratching. The second issue is that you will have to clean the car and remove all particles on top of the paint before dragging the cover all over the car.

[Corey]

Exactly what Claude said^^ if you ever get a grain of sand in that cover it will rub the paint every time on and off moving forward.

[Mark]

Covercraft is definitely one of the top brands. The better the cover, of course the more expensive they are, and usually for an outdoor cover, the longer it will last.

I bought the Covercraft NOAH for my Tahoe, which is one of their better covers, and it did not hold up as long as I had hoped. Failure of the material from wind, and I suspect from a couple other issues, and it began tearing at certain areas. Usually the high stress areas, and where I had used Gust Guard Cords and Clamps.

Now all I use is the security cable and lock, and a few office spring clamps at the front air dam which the front of the truck faces west into prevalent winds here. Even though my vehicle resides under a carport and some of the sun is blocked, I still suspect UV has also placed a beating on this cover here in the desert southwest. The NOAH Cover may not have been the very best choice?

Yes, I was also beginning to get marring on my paint finish, not from taking it on-off, but from the wind causing the cover to billow, and where there were joining seams of 2-3 panels coming together and sewn, this was where marring was occurring, typically on my truck, the two front fenders.

No wax or sealant, no matter how durable was doing that good a job of preventing this. At first I tried applying Moleskin to these areas on the inside of the cover, it helped some.

Two better solutions to reduce such....Thankfully, I can sew and now have and use a sewing machine. Covercraft sent me a fairly large square of the same material, and I sewn in small square "pads" over these seams. The other, was I coated the truck with CQuartz UK/Reload, and this gave my paint finish a much greater degree of resistance to marring versus any other product I've ever used on the truck.

To remove and install a cover, and lessen any dragging which can cause marring-scratching, I've found the best method is to roll-fold the cover from at first the front and back of vehicle to the center of the roof, then again fold up the cover from each side of the vehicle and then lift the cover off the roof.

No matter how high quality and soft a cover is, (The NOAH is quite soft) it is the dirts, and grits that will inevitably become deposited-trapped between the cover and the vehicle from winds, and from time that will be the major cause of paint marring.

This means any cover over time will need washing. Trust that the cover I have on my Tahoe, this cover is huge, there's no conventional washing machine, or dryer that can handle this large cover. I had to figure a way, and made a homemade washing machine from a 55gal plastic drum with drain cock. Then hang and air dry the cover to the point of it being manageable to replace onto the vehicle semi-dry. After a short time, the cover then fully dries. While the cover is wet, it is very heavy as you can imagine.

When I first got my NOAH Cover, it was about 95% waterproof. As time went by, and degradation began to occur, probably from washings, and hosing it down with a garden hose, and as well UV degradation, the cover became less and less waterproof.

This loss caused me to try a fabric water repellent, Aerospace 303 Fabric Protector. With some hindsight, this may have been a big mistake. The chemicals in this Fabric Guard may have further accelerated material degradation, and as well caused another issue, in that I've seen small white dust and flakes all over the vehicle, and this is most likely the fabric guard product.

Not sure what Covercraft might suggest, probably nothing, as all these types of products may have a damaging effect on the materials.

Over the past 8 months, the cover continues to degrade, a tear here, a rip there, I pull the cover, and re-sew and patch so I can get some more time from it. This NOAH Cover was about $330 if I recall.

I will buy another cover in due time, perhaps before the end of this calendar year. I will see if I can request some small swatches of fabric samples from them, and thinking this time I will most likely look at the more expensive Weathershield,or Weathershield HD Covers instead of another NOAH Cover.

Hope these experiences I have had will help inform you and others, so that one can make the best choice for a cover.

[Mark]

Reducing the amount of winds that hit a vehicle, and the cover upon it will help considerably increase the life of the cover, and perhaps also help reduce wind induced billowing, and the resultant marring of the paint finish.

It will not matter if you have 10 gust guard cables with clamps to hold the cover down, the billowing will occur no matter what, as winds flow "over" the cover.

In my own application, making some form of "wall" in the front of my vehicle would surely help a lot to reduce billowing, and also some sun-heat. Surely, Florida is not as "windy" a state as NM, but you do get high winds with the storms throughout the state.

If the vehicle can be parked on a certain side of the house to reduce oncoming prevalent winds, this can be a big plus if possible.

I myself will seriously consider the TOTL Covercraft the next time, but will get a sticker shock, the TOTL Weathershield HD for my Tahoe is about a $500+ cover, considerably much more money than the Covercraft NOAH.

[FSportIS]

Sorry to be the bad guy here. Car cover is a bad thing because:
1. It creates so much chance of scratching your car.
2. It hides your beautiful car for what???
3. You have one more job on the plate--taking care of the car cover and keep the cover clean!

[Merlin]

As far as a "fitted" car cover...Covercraft is known for their extensive collection of vehicle patterns.

Now as far a materials go, I have personally had good results with their Weathershield HD in So. Fl. sun.
After four years I did have an issue with a seam at one of the "Dumbo ears" that cover the side mirrors.
This cover was on the vehicle 24/7 in the heat and constant rain. They replaced the cover at no charge.
For my environment the Weathershield HD was like having a garage in my driveway. See Fabric chart. (http://www.covercraft.com/carcovers/car_cover_fabrics.html)

Is a car cover perfect. No, but for me it was a huge improvement over leaving it exposed to the elements.

[FSportIS]

haha, probably I'm the minority here but I love to show how shinny my car is to people so I never use cover.

Again, both my cars have been parking on the street exposing to California sun/rain whatever the mother nature throws at it on a 24/7 basis for many, many years. Yep, they are still show room status and ready to be in any car show. Carpro CQUK, Reload, 303 protectant, Ultima Interior Guard Plus... are top products that protect my cars in this very real world environment.

[Blown03]

I'd say everything was covered here on owning a cover . I guess it comes down to where you live and how much patience you have along with your(a persons)ability to fix what little marring is left. FL may very well be worse with wind . My Cobra had been garaged its entire life from mile 1 up to like 3 years ago(37K now) .

Its pretty simple and clear for me to see where it has helped tremendously ,once you realize its pitfalls. March and April seem to be the worst of the winds for us(Northern part of Delaware), which is where all my marring occurs . I simply cant imagine what my paint would look like after sitting in one spot from mid October to like a week ago , uncovered . That's an excellent idea Merlin , sewing in some stuff over seams .

I agree with Merlin there's a way to cover it and uncover it with very minimum damage .

I'm for the Its worth the hassle . I think least my year vehicle , 03 , its worth it for like right now . It's raining , my Engine Bay is not sealed like even a 2010 5oh , and my Engine bay seems to get 2 or 3 heads stuck in it and scrutinized every Saturday from May til September lol , you know Cruise Inns etc.. The rain water leaves hard spots all along the inside fender well , my stock Hood Vents aren't just for show they work so , that = water on my blower and pullies . Cover allows me to clean the engine bay once then basically leaf blow the pollen out for next few weeks . No bending over removing water spots every single week or more during the car season .
I guess the questions to ask yourself whether to buy or not buy a car cover of any brand , is what do you use the car for and, can you fix what the cover leaves during your Windy Season . They save me time and work , other elements that if you don't own a garage will wreak havoc on vehicles is , pollen in door jams body seams , oh man it is a mess and majorly time consuming trying to have every Nook and Cranny clean when its not covered ,my black door jams Glow Green after 3 days of sitting out .

JMHO and observations since I have been dealing with an Out Door Car Cover .

Here's a couple shots I took last week , the first time I uncovered since end of Oct. I can take some w/ the halo's when I do the spring/summer cleaning to show the marring if someone needs it . Hope this helps in making your decision . (sorry for the 4th pic in left field idk what happen lol)

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