Car cover question

[Kingofdust]

Hey all, well I just bought my first corvette, an 02 Z06 with 7800 miles on it. The car is a blast and I am loving it so far. For my recent birthday my parents got me a car cover from west coast corvettes, a silver one with Z06 embroidered logo, but it doesn't have a liner or anything, just a single layer of a plastic like material.

This is what it says on the website:
"Finally a quality car cover with the embroidered C5 or Z06 Logo. Intro-Guard covers are all lightweight, extremely protective, and friendly to your paint. They are made from a Soft 150 Denier woven polyester fabric that is coated with aluminized polyurethane and acrylic. With an excellent design, these covers fold up small enough to fit in your corvette's storage compartment when not in use. The light grey color does a great job of keeping the sun's rays off your vehicle, leading to a cooler interior."

So my question is, can I use this without scratching my car? The car already has some super light swirling and tiny scratches but for the most part it looks mint, like an 8,000 mile car should. I plan on paying a lot of money in the spring to get it corrected and coated with CQuartz Finest so I don't want to pay a ton of money to get that done and then have the cover scratch up the coating. The car IS garaged, and the cover would only go on when it will not be used for a month or so.

Thanks for any help!!!

[af90]

Personally I'm not a fan of them because dirt can become trapped underneath and the cover's can slip and scratch. In addition it's very difficult to cover the car in it's entirety without dragging it along the paint.

If it's garaged I would pass. It's safer just to wash it when it gets dusty then use a car cover.

[Kingofdust]

I read somewhere that a micro fleece blanket in-between the cover and the car might work. I feel awful, as it really is a beautiful cover but if it scratches the paint I obviously don't want to put it on. My parents understand but don't really want to pay the ridiculous shipping charges to send it back.

[GS2011]

I have had several "garage queens" through the years, and always keep them covered. If you always make sure the car is clean (I use a QD in between washes) and use a high quality cover with a fleece type lining, scratches are not a problem. One of the cars I had was black, and the cover never scratched it or marred it in any way. It has saved the finish many times when someone/or thing accidentally comes into contact with the car while in the garage. Covercraft make excellent covers and AG sells them.

[MPBGT]

I'm looking to get a new car cover for my mustang. All my research leads me back to covercraft. As said by others the car needs to be completely clean. The cover craft covers have a nice fit and are so soft. The one you have almost sounds like a outdoor cover that is trying to reflect the suns rays when parked in a parking lot.

[MarkD51]

Maybe some folks here aren't too quick to respond to my posts, or comments, because I can be at times a little flamboyant.

But here's my take. From what I read, you plan on parking this Vette outside with this cover, correct? I've owned a few covers over the years, from a simple cotton canvas cover that protected my 1967 Stingray in a brick 2 car garage, to my latest, the Covercraft NOAH, currently sitting on my cherry '97 Tahoe.

My conclusions are this: There is not a Car Cover made in the world which can guarantee not to mar your paint. And I wouldn't care if you were some Jay-Z, or Kayne rapper, and bought a car cover lined with Seal Fur, which makes Mink look like a Porcupine to cover your Bugatti Veyron.

It's dirts, dusts, breezes, winds, the repeated putting it on, taking it off, which cause marring, not so much the Cover, and the trouble is, just how clean can anyone keep a cover? Abrasive particles of some sort will eventually find their way underneath, it is inevitable.

Now if you were parked in your living room, like a Dan Tanna PI (Robert Urich) with his T-Bird, then you might be OK with the cheapest simple cover made.

Here, where I'm at, with adverse weather conditions like blowing dusts, Gypsum, high winds, intense Sun, my Covercraft NOAH, a $330 Cover has literally gone to shreds, and 2 years ownership is coming up next month. Half short of its 4 year warrantee. It has lost its water repellency, and has torn almost at every stress point.

Thank God I can use a sewing machine, because I've spent a good number of hours piecing it back together for now.

Some of the reasons I've noticed marring on my own Tahoe's Paint finish, was due to bumps caused by 2, or 3 panels being joined by seams, and at these areas, sure enough, some fairly nasty marring was occurring, especially at my two front fenders. I had to resort to sewing in some small "pads"of NOAH Material.

Other downsides of the NOAH, and Covercraft, I have custom Cal Vu Street Scene Mirrors on my Truck, much smaller than the Stock Mirrors. Covercraft would not properly make those Mirror Pockets for me on order.

But I re-sewed them myself to the proper size.

All the while, when I noted paint finish marring, my Tahoe was being protected by some of the finest products this site here has to offer, such as Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0, Menzerna Powerlock, Ultima Paint Guard Plus, Wolfgang Liquid Seal, Optimum Liquid Seal, and other fine detailing sprays-products. Didn't matter, none of them had the ability to protect from the abrasions being caused by the cover, and grist-dusts being rubbing against paint finish.

It was one important reason that I concluded I needed something even better on my paint, something more durable, more abrasion resistant and I recently coated most of my truck with Carpro CQuartz UK. To early to tell yet, but I think the CQuartz will prove more durable, and able to withstand these issues I previously noted here.

I hope my thoughts, and experiences help you.
Mark

[Mike Phillips]

Here's my tip....

If you get the car cover... learn the proper technique for putting the cover on and taking it off. I have pictures for an article on this but have never put the article together. I can... just a time thing....

Besides that....

Create a CLEAN place to keep your car cover when not in use. One of the tricks to avoid scratches and marring is to keep the car cover clean in the first place. Most of my life what I've seen is after the cover is removed, it's stored in the corner of the garage floor.

Get a plastic bin or something that you dedicated for the car cover when not in use.