I bought a car cover from Ford when I purchased my car (I've never owned a car cover before) and figured it would be waterproof. I washed my car yesterday and to preserve three hours worth of cleaning, waxing, and polishing...I covered it with the car cover last night only to find the car soaking wet when I removed the cover.

What's worse is that the water smeared on the windows when I removed the cover and now there are dried water marks all over the car. It didn't stop my windows from being blurry in the morning either. I feel like the car would have looked nicer this morning if I didn't put the car cover on at all.

Is it the car cover or do they all do this?

~Ray

 

Want to sell it? PM me...

 

They all do that--even the covers that are supposed to be breathable. I believe after the cover gets soaked (rinsed) a few times, the smearing becomes less. If your cover is breathable, the water will seep through as it is supposed to. But because its breathable the water that seeps through is supposed to eventually wick away and dry.

 

There are two possibilities for your troubles;

1. It is an Indoor cover and the material is not intended to be water resistant.

2. The cover is dirty.

Whats wrong with a dirty cover you ask? Well, you see, most covers acheive water resistance either through the use of a special fabric or the use of ScotchGuard.

The problem with a dirty cover is that the dirt will act as a wick, pulling water through the fabric. Water on a clean cover will bead and run off. It will not wick through.

So, if the cover you have is made of a fabric that is designed to repel water, you need to wash the cover to restore its ability to resist the intrusion of water.

Put the cover in your washer with a 1/4 cup of Simple Green. Do not use HOT water. Warm or cold will be fine. After the washer has finished, run it another cycle with no Simple Green. Just use plain water. This will ensure that all of the Simple Green has been removed.

Once washed, hang the cover up and allow it to dry. Once dry, it is ready to go back on the car. Depending one where you live, the cover may resist water for several months before it needs to be washed again.


A ScotchGuard cover is a different problem. Washing it will not not restore it. The only way to fix it is to re-apply a new coating of ScotchGuard.


I buy my covers from CoverCraft. As long as I keep them clean, my Mustang stays dry.

http://www.covercraft.com


Mark

 

car covers are a complete waste of time IMO when the car is parked outside, there is no way the car wont get dirty even with the cover on and if the car isnt 100%spotless when you put the cover on you will swirl/scratch or just mess up your perfect shine when you put it on and take it off. What car covers are perfect for however are for things like Ferraris, cars that hardly get driven so as to never get dirty are highly maintained and garaged, so the car cover simply acts as a dust gaurd. I had one custom made for my 98 and stopped using it while it was my daily but now that it just sits majority of the time it works wonders....lol

 

when I visit my folks, there are trees everywhere that mist. A car cover is a definite must have if I intend to stay the night