Good car cover?

bennylava

bennylava

New member
I`m looking for a good car cover for my 94 Mustang GT. The car is in excellent shape and I aim to keep it that way. But I do need to park it for sometimes months at a time, and I need a good quality car cover. I`m not real familiar with car cover prices, but I heard that some of them can get pretty pricey. I`m looking for something that is the best bang for the buck. Something that won`t break the bank, but I don`t mind spending more to get one that is of good quality.

Any recommendations on a quality car cover for my 94 mustang would be greatly appreciated.
 
bennylava- While I share the "all car covers are bad news", based on considerable experience with what were the best ones a while back, I guess the "do something else!" advice isn`t really useful to you.

I got mine from the now-defunct BHMA, but IIRC California Car Cover is the name of *the* current company for them.

Is this inside or outdoors?
 
Thanks accumulator. Yeah I`d love to somehow keep the car indoors, but unfortunately I do not have means to do so at this time. I was just keeping the car in the garage, but I frequently work on other cars and it is getting to be really inconvenient to move the mustang around all the time. I will check out california car covers, thanks for the recommendation.

As for the paint, I don`t have any intention of ever selling this car unless I was forced to for some reason. So I already figured that in 10 years, I`d probably end up putting a quality paint job on it. I figure a its not too bad to paint a car if the paint job lasted 30+ years before it was old and tired. You can do all the upkeep you want to an old paint job, but nothing can match the looks of a new high quality paint job. And while the car is in great shape, its a 94 and the paint isn`t without some wear and tear that detailing won`t fix.
 
bennylava- See how you feel about repainting it over time, opinions change ;) I myself have come to *REALLY* value original paint, considering (even pretty nasty) flaws to be mere "patina from honest use"/character. I only repaint stuff when it *really* needs doing these days, at least on the "special" cars (the dailies get whatever needs it reshot whenever it needs it). When I got the `93 Audi I was sure I`d have lots of paintwork done, but I`m glad it didn`t.

Heh heh, keeping our sentimental attachment special cars around gets a bit problematic, huh?!? That`s a huge part of why I finally sold off so many Accumulated vehicles...not sure what I`ll do if we ever downsize, but at least for now everything`s on-site and indoors.
 
Not sure where you live but I park 2 Fox Mustangs outside every winter (my garage is not big enough) here in SE Michigan and I`ve been using Covercraft Noah car covers for several years. They fit nice and snug and work well for 2-3 years. You might get some mild paint scuffing on sharp corners if your area is windy but it usually polishes off pretty easily.

I`ve recently bought a carcovers.com Platinum cover, it`s a completely different material and fits looser but keeps the car drier than the Noah. I haven`t been through a winter with it yet, this year will be the first, so I can`t say how it does through a winter. I would recommend getting their gust strap wind protector kit along with the cover.

I know a lot of guys here don`t like covers but to me the damage from using a cover is much easier to fix than the damage that would occur if the car was left uncovered through a winter.
 
Accumulator said:
bennylava- See how you feel about repainting it over time, opinions change ;) I myself have come to *REALLY* value original paint, considering (even pretty nasty) flaws to be mere "patina from honest use"/character. I only repaint stuff when it *really* needs doing these days, at least on the "special" cars (the dailies get whatever needs it reshot whenever it needs it). When I got the `93 Audi I was sure I`d have lots of paintwork done, but I`m glad it didn`t.

Heh heh, keeping our sentimental attachment special cars around gets a bit problematic, huh?!? That`s a huge part of why I finally sold off so many Accumulated vehicles...not sure what I`ll do if we ever downsize, but at least for now everything`s on-site and indoors.
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Yeah a lot of people feel that way and I can understand why. But personally I`m more attached to fantastic looks than pure originality. I`ll take a paint job that turns heads rather than one that is original, but has flaws that are always going to draw my eye and that I will wish were not there. Also I was going to use the original paint color, but with a much higher quality (and deeper more reflective) clear coat that Ford used in back in 1994. These modern clears are tougher AND look better, if the body guys are to be believed.

There is only one thing, and it may just be my imagination. Because I don`t know if the human eye is actually capable of detecting this. My guess would be it isn`t, because of the thickness we`d be dealing with here. But sometimes I almost think that I can see that even high quality, expensive aftermarket paint jobs look... thicker. Like the paint is just standing a bit taller off of the metal. Which is actually true, because at the factory the paint is sprayed on thin. Thinner than the best paint shops spray it. But its probably just my imagination, cause we`d be talking about a thickness that if you could see it sideways, you wouldn`t be able to tell the difference without aid to your vision. The paint on some repainted restored vehicles just looks different. Somehow more robust or... something. I`m not saying that this is bad in any way, quite the contrary.

I`d be willing to bet that for most cars/trucks, you can pay for a higher quality paint job than the factory was willing to spring for.

mustangmike said:
I know a lot of guys here don`t like covers but to me the damage from using a cover is much easier to fix than the damage that would occur if the car was left uncovered through a winter.
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Ain`t that the truth. If there are a lot of people here that don`t like car covers, those people must have the ability to keep a car indoors when they want. If they`re talking about when you have to leave it outside, I`d say they`ve completely failed to consider what goes on outside without a car cover. I have trees, sun, wind, rain, squirrels, cats, occasional opossums, birds and their poop... sometimes snow and sleet, on and on.
 
bennylava- Yeah, I pretty much figure that different people are gonna have different likes/dislikes and that it`s all good.

IME virtually all repaints *are* much thicker than oe finishes, especially these days.

As for looks...with b/c I can agree with you in most cases...IF the shop is good, but that`s rare IME and I know painters who have cars shipped to them from overseas. OTOH, one of my pet peeves is when a vehicle that was originally single-stage gets repainted with b/c. Every single time I`ve seen that it`s looked wrong to me..I spot it right away and think "yuck" no matter how well it was done. Eh, just me. The ss paint on my `85 Jag looks AWFUL by Autopian standards, but I`d simply HATE that car in b/c, wouldn`t even want to see it.

And another specific-to-me factor is that some of my vehicles (e.g., the `93 Audi, which is WAY worse than that Jag), simply can`t be properly repainted as some things just can`t be disassembled to do the job right. Way they`re built...it`d take a gazillion $ and even then it`d basically be a case of remanufacturing it from the ground up.

On outside vehicles, I guess I`ve been lucky. I`ve had no real problems, despite living in areas with, uhm...considerable backyard wildlife, "considerable" as in... most suburbanites can`t imagine. Until I gave away the Volvo a few years ago, I had a station wagon out in the driveway for decades, starting back in `87. But yeah, that`s just *my* situation/good fortune and has no bearing on anybody else :D
 
If/when I ever have the stang painted, I was going to be very selective about the body shop. I`d probably travel far if I had to, to have the car painted by the best. Those shops that crank out cars that win shows, and such. The guys that really know what they`re doing. Using a standard bodyshop that does ok work and is close to me, would be asking for it in my experience.
 
bennylava said:
I`m looking for a good car cover for my 94 Mustang GT. The car is in excellent shape and I aim to keep it that way. But I do need to park it for sometimes months at a time, and I need a good quality car cover. I`m not real familiar with car cover prices, but I heard that some of them can get pretty pricey. I`m looking for something that is the best bang for the buck. Something that won`t break the bank, but I don`t mind spending more to get one that is of good quality.

Any recommendations on a quality car cover for my 94 mustang would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

I have used a Noah outdoors.
But I can`t recommend CA Car Covers unless you live fairly close. They used to just let you send a picture on a warranty claim and they would replace the cover. They changed their policy, now they want you to send it back for "inspection" and they replace just the panel that is damaged. This might work except it is *really* expensive to ship those bulky things back-like 35$.

Did you say you were in FL? You will probably be ok, I think it`s the snow that kills the covers. A little bit of water may sneak in and freeze, then the wind whips up and tears the cover. Some fine dirt does get under the cover and land on the paint. Definitely use the tie downs, front, center, back as I think it will less beating on the car in the wind. You don`t have to buy theirs you can get tarp clamps at HF and use thin cotton clothesline or paracord.
 
A quick google search pulled up a number of car canopy, carport, or "portable garage" solutions that I would personally opt for before ever using a car cover again...some starting as low as $60. If you have the space outdoors and can stake it down firmly, that`s the direction I`d recommend going.
 
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