[Mike] covers his car whenever he puts it into the garage because the top is always open. After years of this ritual he decided to upgrade his garage to automatically cover the vehicle (link dead, try the Internet Archive version). The car cover, made from a few bed sheets, attaches to the bottom of the garage door. At the front of the stall the cover has two half-pound weights sewn in with plenty of padding to protect the car’s finish. Ropes attach to these weights, travel through a pulley system, and connect to the garage door opener carriage. This $65 dollar solution makes sure [Mike’s] car is always taken care of.
[Thanks 02TA]
Clever! Looks like it works well, too.
Very nice! Simple and cheap, and nice Vette as well.
WOW! A hack that doesn’t have an arduino controlling it? What is the world coming to?
problem is when the car is dirty and that sheet drags across the car tail a couple timea, he’s going to scratch the hell out of the tail. <$100 car cover that'll cost $1500 to repair in 3 years.
I actually like this. If I wanted to cover my car every time I parked I would certainly automate the process.
brilliant! simple & foolproof…. except for the scratching part. Maybe a simple wipe of the tail with a dusting wand would help.
Also stitching a pocket for an arduino board….. maybe some flashing leds or something would be hilarious!
LOVE IT
maybe i’m missing something, but is covering it with a roof not good enough?
LEAFSPRINGS :D
@sanchoo: A dusty cloth isn’t going to scratch the paintjob on a modern car. Maybe if there was some dirt stuck to it from driving in the mud or snow, but at that point you’d have bigger problems.
Unless it’s tight, there should be no scratches. I’m glad to see a hack in here that even I could build.
“This 65 dollar dollar solution makes sure [Mike’s] car is always taken care of.”
Regarding the comments about scratching and costing much more money in the future, you guys seem to have forgotten a few things here.
1) Anyone who covers their car while it’s in the garage is likely they guy who gets out and looks it over every time he gets out and takes care of and dirt right then and there
2) Any scratches that may result will be in the clearcoat, and again, if you take this good of care of your car you likely have a nice thick coat of wax on it all the time. In either case, a simple claybarring or good buffing will take care of any surface scratching.
Just my .02
+10 points for his Netscape webpage icon.. its like rickrolling for browsers.
@Presario I assume your comment is based on the misinformed Top Gear Episode.
more correctly it’s LEAF SPRING (singular), the rear end has a single spring that runs parallel with the rear axle and does the duty of the springs for both rear wheels as well as that of the rear sway bar.
the design is actually quite ingenious as it not only controls the rear end more accurately than a 3 spring system along with shaving a good 80lbs off the weight, not to mention the spring weight that DOES exist is parallel with the axle.
the only reason you don’t see professional race cars using this setup is the costs involved. since the spring is quite expensive to make as a 1 off part (cheaper in mass production obviously) and the only way to “adjust it” is to swap it out with a new spring with a different rate and dimensions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvette_leaf_spring#Leaf_springs_on_the_Corvette
Nice Corvette :D
Dang, can’t access the pics or video cuz it seems they’ve been removed or the server is gone. Anyone have the pics saved?