[mikon]

"A stitch in time saves nine"

It’s India, and due to space constraint many of us park our beloved vehicle under an uncovered parking. Luck also prevails a major role in getting a parking spot also, be it in society we live in, malls, besides the excellent roads we have etc. It is a regular job for the person who drives his car daily. Everyday after all the permutations and combinations in time management, dodging the traffic etc. he reaches home and parks the car. Thus he completes this Stage-I situtation. The car goes to another cycle.

Cover your car

If you are lazy or don’t have a cover, car enters to a Stage-2 situation.

Most of our society are full of cricket stars, football players, marathon stars, hide and seek (not Parle biscuits) gamers, tricycle drag racers, drifting on 2-wheels etc. (actually I cannot recollect the other games). Your car body undergoes various "touches" - soiled palms, cricket ball scratches, football bumps, drag-racing gone bad and also various designs created by budding architects, painters, cartoonists, and kids who hate you.
Come late evening, all the players go home for study. You have plans for dinner with someone special. You are all groomed - had a nice shower, branded clothes, expensive perfumes. Threw out all the office politics and have small smile thinking about the dinner and somewhat tensed that you would be braving the traffic again. Then you come to the parking spot and you miss a heartbeat after you see the "art" on your car.

Yes, you should have covered the car

After you come back from the dinner, lock the car and go home with sweet memories (possibly). The car enters Stage 3 - the love-birds in the society or late night callers. They are in a different world, after all we are humans and we love being on cloud 9 every day. Your car bonnet serves as cushioned seat for the late night caller (if the specific person doesn’t follow walk while talking Idea!). As a result you can imagine what design is imprinted on the car bonnet after the call. If the person is on a heavier side - the macpherson struts, bilstein comes helpful. Some designers also draw different types of heart on window (may be different heart design for different caller!)

Yes, the car cover would have helped here too

Stage5 is the early morning scenario if the car is parked under a tree. Your car goes again for another art - settled dust from the night, the leaves falling down from the tree and yes the car also becomes a toilet for our feathered friends. They think - Look a relatively clean place, let’s inaugurate it and loosen up! (The nice place is your car body – roof, bonnet, windows

Aha! I have my daily car washer for rescue. He washes the car and it looks nice and shiny. Your morning starts with a smile. But do remember, he has to wash 20 to 30 cars or even more. Then he might have to go for a daily job to attend and he’s in a hurry. There is a fair chance your car gets the proper treatment. What if he just throws water and uses the cloth directly over the soiled car? Use your imagination. The long-term effect is paint swirls, increase of hairline scratches.

I should have covered it before

These 5 stages is on a daily basis which excludes the weather effects (sun, rain), daily commute risks etc. All these process takes a toll on the car paint. The paint becomes dull, paint-chipping happens, hairline scratches, swirls etc

Once the paint becomes dull on a recently purchased car, you take the car to leading polishing stores. They try to sell you all kinds of combo packages, and they are not cheap. Somebody also advised me to put a paint protection package at around 50000 INR for my car. I thought, instead of that, I can go for a re-painting or rather get a matt-black wrap done

So friends, Instead of going to the last stage, we can start from beginning by just putting a car-cover every day. I know it is a tedious task, but you love your car right

The above writing is my observation. Of course it differs from person to person. I just wanted to highlight the importance of the car-cover in long-term.
** MODS please move this topic wher-ever applicable.

[cityvic]

When we had bought the Black Civic in 2010,our house was getting repainted.At our place,the garage is such that in a single line,5 cars get parked one behind the other.Since our parking is half open,to protect the car from paint droppings,I had then purchased a car cover for the civic since it was used very rarely then and used to be parked 90% in the garage during the day.

The cover use to be kept on all the time and removed only when the car was getting washed before we took the car out.The car always use to be dusted with the feather duster before putting the cover back on.But always,I would notice that due to the car cover,the paint use to get a lot of swirls.I stopped using the car cover immediately after the painting of our house was completed.

So my experience with the car covers has not been so good.Yes it surely did protect the car from something falling on top of it but it did create a lot of swirls.

Is it becuase,I did not know how to use the car cover correctly or using the car cover actually causes swirls to the paint?

[GTO]

We have one enclosed parking spot that's taken by the Jeep. The Civic's parking spot has a bird-favourite tree right above. Wash the car all you want...by the afternoon, the car is completely messed up with bird droppings.

Got a car cover only for the Civic and feel good about it. The watchman / servant usually take the cover off / put it back on, thus it's hardly an effort for me.

Related Threads:

Washing a Cover

Tyvek Covers

[madbullram]

Originally Posted by cityvic

But always,I would notice that due to the car cover,the paint use to get a lot of swirls.I stopped using the car cover immediately after the painting of our house was completed.

So my experience with the car covers has not been so good.Yes it surely did protect the car from something falling on top of it but it did create a lot of swirls.

Is it becuase,I did not know how to use the car cover correctly or using the car cover actually causes swirls to the paint?

Its because of bad quality car covers. GTO posted the link for TyVek they are good. I personally use Coverite Soft Bond covers and never had an issue with them. The inner part is soft and does not cause swirl mark. Also, instead of feather duster, which does not really remove the finer dust, get a wax based duster like Jopasu and clean the car before and after the cover.

Coverite website: http://www.amritrasindia.com/coverite/

I also had the problem since my Civic used to butt out of my parking.

[cityvic]

Originally Posted by madbullram

Its because of bad quality car covers. GTO posted the link for TyVek they are good.

Thanks,shall get a Jopasu Duster and a Tyvek Car Cover then.

Another thing,have got rid of the "laal kapra" sold at the signals and got a microfibre cloth from armorall for each of my cars.
Microfibre cloths have helped reduce swirls on the paint by a great extent.

[ajmat]

I stopped letting the daily person "sandpaper my car" since my car is undercover everyday at work. I normally brush the car down and cover it. I personally wash the car thoroughly once a week.

If the car is dirty during the rains, or after a long journey. I let the muck accumulate and get it professionally cleaned.

One tip about the cover. Avoid "throwing" it and dragging it onto the car. I put it on the roof and fold it out and vice versa.

[mikon]

Actually the above story is mine. Its not even 2 years, the car colour has become dull. The showroom black shine is totally lost. Even after the waxing and polishing, the shine just doesn't come up. May be its due excessive runs (53000 km in 21 months) and open parking all the time for past 1 year.

Paint chipping, hairline scratches, swirls etc are present or may be i am paying lot of importance to the details. My car too stays undercover everyday at work
Thinking of putting a coat of paint or claying,buffering would work?

[coolclouds]

I park car in a vacant plot just opposite our house which is home for three dogs in the night. They sleep during day and play a lot in the night, damaging any type of cover :(

[carzone]

Most of the time, my car is covered. It runs pretty less, thats what you call a 50km per week usage.

Had bought cover from a local shop, but turned out to be dull quality. Elastics loosened up within a month's usage and the fabric also gave way in the course of time. Had to tighten the cover with the help of the ropes then.
One fine day, a cat decides she has had enough of my car cover and tears it all over from the bonet and the roof as well.

Finally, got a good deal and ordered a car cover for 399 bucks + shipping and the quality looks promising. It fits well and has good insulation from dust.

Hope this one lasts.
Thanks for the informative thread mikon.

[kingofkings]

Originally Posted by mikon

Cover your car


Most of our society are full of cricket stars, football players, marathon stars,

The car enters Stage 3 - the love-birds in the society or late night

Yes, the car cover would have helped here too

mikon- This thread had me grinning ear to ear . I have faced the brunt of the two aforementioned categories on SO many ocassions that its not even funny anymore.
I cringe each time I hear the whack of tennis balls on bats from my apartment during the evenings when the 'stars' of the society come out to hone their skills.

[pganapathy]

Unfortunately I need to park on the road as the place where I stay does not hav enough parking. The location is under a tree and initially I used to leave it uncovered. A couple if days later and it was covered in bird droppings, fruit and gum droppings from the tree, dust, some filthy water from the house outside which I parked and god alone knows what else. A couple of weeks of this as I tend to use the car very little and the washing became a pain. I tend to prefer washing the car myself so that I know that a good job is being done.

At this point I had an old car cover at home in Coorg. Called dad and asked him to find it MHD says there are a couple of homes and tears in it, but none so bad that they can't be fixed with tape. Only one was big so I cut a nice piece if soft plastic and taped that in place over the big hole and then got the cover down to Bangalore.

I find it a pain to put on and take off the cover every time I want to drive the car, but the joy is that I can leave the car unwashed for so much longer as the cover takes the wonderful debris that used to settle on the car before.

Moral of the story is the short term pain of putting on the cover daily is more than compensated in the ling term with less car washing and a better looking car.

[hellmet]

I use a cover on my car because I take it out so infrequently. But how do you wash the cover when it gets dirty? Something that's been puzzling me for long now.

[carzone]

Originally Posted by hellmet

I use a cover on my car because I take it out so infrequently. But how do you wash the cover when it gets dirty? Something that's been puzzling me for long now.

check out the link that GTO has given some posts above.
I normally put it into a washing maching after some soaking.
Put the machint to gentlest mode and it should be fine.
Doing it more frequently may damage the cover, once two weeks or so would be good.

[mikon]

Originally Posted by hellmet

I use a cover on my car because I take it out so infrequently. But how do you wash the cover when it gets dirty? Something that's been puzzling me for long now.

The local car service station guy advised me to put the cover on the car.. and he'll wash with water-jet, then leave it for drying after taking it out.

[Swanand Inamdar]

Excellent thread Sirji! Loved reading through it!

My car is 'out in the open' while in office, cause the brilliant architect who designed the SEZ forgot to make covered parking for all the cars coming in. So, whatever the weather, my car is left in the open while in office. But its a relatively dust free area, so no dust at the end of the day.

At home though, its a different story. The car has a dedicated covered parking. So, do the other cars in the house. Plus, a guy who washes the car daily. I also give it a, once a month professional washing treatment (twice a month in monsoons).