car covers?
 

Hi,
My boxster sits outside during the day and I'm going to purchase a cover to protect it from the damaging rays of the sun. Any ideas on what i should get?
Thanks

Check out the guide on the Covercraft web site.

Second the recommendation for Covercraft.

One consideration...if you are going to use and then remove the cover on a daily basis, do not get one of the very heavy multi-layer covers. I have all weather covers for my Mini, Z3, Cayman and 530 (vehicles may get rotated out of garage) and I don't use them as often as I should since they are somewhat heavy and take up storage space. Most manufacturers make covers designed for "light duty" daily use.

Also, you may check eBay for cover vendors. I did get a custom cover for my 530 (150k, 17 years old, so not critical) from eBay. The patterns used nowadays seem to be universally a good fit. This cover fits perfectly, is 3 layer, lightweight, and was about $100.

Never cover a dirty car.

Instead buy a sun shade from Walmart for dash protection, and use high quality products like Aerospace 303 on your rubber and vinyl. Zaino Z10 on your leather. Ragg Togg on the cabriolet. And a high quality nano/ceramic coating on your paint. This strategy would better serve you and the car.

Taking a cover on & off the car will only give you scratches and a dirty cover, and draw unecessary attention to your car.

Try to find a cover like this one that I sold about 5 years ago:

http://986forum.com/forums/boxster-cayman-parts-sale-wanted/48032-fs-cabriolet-top-cover.html

This is the best advice, unless you wash the car everyday before putting the cover on you will do more harm than good installing any cover on even a slightly dirty car because the cover will spend the whole day grinding any trapped dirt into the paint. You are better off spending the same amount of time you would putting the cover on and off daily to wax it once a week, and using a dash shade daily. :cheers:

I use a cover on my Boxster and 911. There are a lot of options (materials, thickness, reflectivity, water proof, etc) so you'll need to decide what exactly you want the cover to do first and then select the type of cover to meet those needs. Also, you tend to get what you pay for in a cover so expect to pay a fairly decent amount of money for a good cover.

For example, I have the factory cover for the Boxster (which is nicely lined with a felt like material but it isn't really weatherproof) whereas my 911 cover is a shiny reflective material with no lining but is generally waterproof.

Neither of these cars are concours condition so even if they were to suffer from a little bit of clear coat scratching it definitely won't keep me up at night. :)

thats what i love about this sight, ask any question and get thoughtful replies that often lead in an entirely different direction. I'm thinking the dash cover idea is the way to go. Makes a ton of sense.
Thanks again,
boxsterboxster

Apply a good quality wax followed by a polish to protect it from the elements

And... have the windshield tinted. ~$100.

If you have brand spanking new paint, a ceramic coat might be worth it. Old, somewhat tired paint, not so much. If your car lives outside it’s certainly not pristine most likely anyway. As others have mentioned covercraft has good options, Porsche Tech has a couple too. If you are worried about your paint, and you just have dust etc, a Cali duster is an easy quick way to wipe it off before covering. Some will poo poo this idea saying it will ruin the paint. It won’t. Again, if your paint is concourse quality your car probably isn’t living outside. Another good, and fast option is a quick detailer product. I use Maguiars products. Takes about 5 minutes to do a quick once over. (After a good wax) Cover it up. Call it good.