Who says im cheap ???? .........

[grinder]

Just to 100% prove my cheapness , here is the latest hair brain scheme i have come up with

since moving house back in Dec 2007 , i dont have a carport so the cab has been subjected to all sorts of weather

with a mishap in Jan 2008 where i got about 2 inch of water in the footwell and promptly blew the ECU i decided i needed to keep the car dry

so to start out i used a £15 argos cover , this probably lasted a month tops before being ripped apart by the wind

so i then moved onto a £35 cover by argos , this lasted about 2 days before being found in the front garden - the wind had blown it off the car completly

so i was now forced to use a £10 car top cover - nice and cheap and lasted a few months ( at a guess ) this was then ripped to shreds by the wind etc...

and then over the following months up till yesterday i have done thru many more of the car top covers

the problem is , is that when the wind gets under them - it just blows hell out of them and ruins them very quickly - so i needed a new plan

and this is what it looks like ( see pic )

yeah thats right - its a shower curtain .. Grinder friendly price from tescos at 96p

with some minor mods ( i cut the holding straps off a car cover and attached them to the shower curtain ) and also put some washing line thru the holes that attach it to the shower rail

the cover was attached ( its not that big - but needs to keep the roof dry ) - it was tied around the mirrors , hooked under the back arches and the washing line around the rear wheels

there is a duvet cover underneath the shower curtain so that it wont scratch the paint work

now .. how long are we expecting this cover to last - to be honest - if it does a month i will be happy

it seems to be made of stronger stuff than a car cover - and in the grand scheme of things they are to be used in the shower - so it should keep the car dry no probs

... goood god im cheap ...

Stu / Grinder

[Brett]

Nothing on earth can ever be as good as this.  Nothing.

Grinder - I salute you :god

[peterwolds]

innovative as well as economical

[grinder]

ha ha ha knew you would like it !!

i was having a shower on sat night and the idea suddenly came to me

if that amount of water can spray directly at a shower curtain ( from a shower only 3 feet away ) - but the floor stays dry it must me 99.9999999% water proof

and it was the cheapest i could find !!

its 180*180cms - so about 6*6feet - just a shame i cant find a bigger one say 6*8 feet

but we shall see how long this one lasts

when it gives up the ghost i will take pics of the mess

[L18M]

thats genius! just a thought though to maybe help the wind pulling it apart. how about getting another one to place ontop. then the curtain on the bottom u can cut some holes in it so it wind blows uo there then the hole can divert the wind away rather than just pulling it to shreds.
kinda like those umbrellas with 2 layers.

[Jimi_Hendrix]

This is exactly the sort of thing that made the nation great!:Laugh
 
More of this thinking outside the box is required i say! Ha ha ha!

[shaunwil]

lol, loving it !

Shaun

[grinder]

hummm not a bad idea - not sure if cutting holes would weaken it some what

in an ideal world you could get 2 of them - glue them together to that

1 - it could be anything from 6*6 to 6*11 ( allowing 1 foot for glueing )
2 - you would have "eyes" at both ends so you might beable to strap it down better

the next plan is to run some rope or something from the rear right wheel to the left wing mirror and vice versa - this should stop it flapping around ( i think )

but at 96/98p who cares - as long as it works im not bothered

i love a cheap fix though

so off to the £1 shop at dinner to see what i can find

[Nik da Greek]

.....is all good, the sorta shed and shoestring engineering that made Britain Great!

....although the thought occurs that you could\'ve just taken the £60.96p (+undisclosed sum for the duvet cover :Giggle) that you\'ve accumulated on buying successive cheapy covers and shower curtains and bought one really top-notch car cover in the first place ......

[TiddlesRX7]

If your struggling to keep it down in the wind, put a tennis ball on the underside of the cover. Hold it from the outside and wrap a bungee cord or rope around it and then tie it to the car. Works for my Dad with his kit cars and it\'ll never rip.

Oh and just to clairfy, YES YOU ARE CHEAP.

[dthebuk]

show that credit crunch who\'s boss!!!

[grinder]

If your struggling to keep it down in the wind, put a tennis ball on the underside of the cover. Hold it from the outside and wrap a bungee cord or rope around it and then tie it to the car. Works for my Dad with his kit cars and it\'ll never rip.

Oh and just to clairfy, YES YOU ARE CHEAP.

thats genius

and yes - spending £60 would have prob saved me hell of a lot of hassle to be honest - should have thought about that before i started

whats more annoying is that at the old house - it only cost me £120 to build a 18ft long car port and that kept the car lovely and dry and no need for faffing around with covers

[Spartacus]

Don\'t like to rain on your parade or your cover but won’t the duvet cover get soaking wet and leave you with the same problem?

[grinder]

the same problem ??

the only reason i have the cover is that a seal is split - and you get a load of water in the footwell ( need to source a new one - but all FC Cabs are like this )

using the duvet cover and a cover ontop of that i have managed to keep the car dry thru all the winter weather - so from that point of view its working as it should

the problem ( as you point out ) is that the duver thats not covered gets wet - and this is prob causing the car to get mouldy on the inside .. BUT.. the car hasnt been run for prob 4 months - so what would any other car be like parked outside over winter and not used - i cant picture it being exactly spotless on the inside ??

it boils down to 2 things in the grand scheme :-

1 - try and keep the car dry the best i can with a cover ( regardless of how the inside looks )
2 - sell the car ( thats what the better half wants and i have been combatting this for over 12 months now )

[Spartacus]

Fair enough, I just thought that with the duvet exposed that it would soak up all the rain and still be soaking wet under the cover which is there to stop it getting wet if you see what I mean.