I keep seeing people stack car covers on dirty paint then wonder why they get scratches

I walked through a buddy's storage unit last month and noticed six cars all wrapped up with covers that had dirt caked on the inside liner. He was proud of keeping dust off them but every cover was just grinding that grit into the clear coat. I learned this lesson the hard way back in 2018 when I pulled a cover off my '67 Mustang and found swirl marks across the hood. Now I always blow the car off with compressed air before throwing the cover on and give the cover itself a shake every few weeks. It takes maybe 10 extra minutes but saves you from having to buff out scratches later. Has anyone else noticed this mistake at local car meets or storage lots?

2 comments

2 Comments

spencer_coleman1d ago

Yeah but honestly I think people overthink the whole car cover thing. Most of the time the paint on a daily driver already has enough micro scratches from road debris that the cover isn't making things that much worse. Especially if you're not parking it outside 24/7 and just using the cover for storage, the minimal abrasion from a clean cover isn't really noticeable compared to what you'd get from normal driving. To me it's more about keeping birds or tree sap off than chasing perfection on a paint job that already sees real miles.

paul_taylor2123h ago

Wait, you're saying that to @spencer_coleman, a clean cover still scratches paint just from normal use?