Lazy Mans Automatic Car Cover

3.42 upgrade/our 2002/mods/custom C5 ramps/reducing interior noise/main/ham radio

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It all started with my new 1985 Corvette coupe that was always garaged with the top removed. It gathered too much dust (even just sitting inside the garage) so I knew a car cover was needed. Strapped for cash, the wife suggested sewing together some old bed sheets to use as a car cover. It worked well, except to remove this bed-sheet cover required two people acting in a manor as two boy scouts would fold up an American flag.

17 years later... With a couple of weeks to kill before taking delivery of my 2002 coupe, I decided to try and automate the raising and lowering of the cover; using the garage door opener as the source of the power. So off to KMart to buy 3 king-sized flat sheets; the cheapest ones they sold. Was only able to find queen-sized flat sheets, on sale for $11 each. The cheap sheets have a loose weave and was perfect since I wanted a cover that would breathe. My wife sewed them together then trimmed the length.

I attached the rear of the cover to the garage door. This made the raising/lowering (of the back of the cover) a no-brainer. The front of the cover was attached to ropes, then through pullies back up to above the garage door opening where through another 180 degree pully it was attached to the garage door actuator arm.

Here is the cover all the way down onto the '02 taken from the front passenger side of the car. My garage is small and it was difficult to get wide angle pics:

And now from the drivers rear of the car (you can see the ropes going to the front of the cover).

Now, from the rear with the garage door about 2/3 open (you can see the garage door in the upper part of the pic)

The garage door fully open. The edges of the cover are almost 7 feet high; although it doesn't look that way since my garage has 9' ceilings and a 8' tall door. Being a 6 footer myself, I can easily walk under the fully raised cover without stooping down.

From the front again with the door 2/3 open:

and the cover fully raised:

As mentioned earlier, attaching the rear of the cover to the garage door was easy. A pocket was sewn at the rear of the cover where a 1x1 wood piece was slid into. Button holes were stitched in 4 places where eyelets (that were screwed into the wood piece) could poke out through. Then "S" hooks were utilized attaching it to the door where another set of eyelets were mounted. It is just seconds to de-attach it from the door.

Now moving to the front of the car/cover; you can see the ropes attached to the front sides of the cover

Here is a closeup detail of the attachment point. The small pouch holds a 3/4 lb. weight; all well padded.

Following the rope up to the ceiling joist, it goes through a pulley heading back to the garage door opening:

In the pic below you can see where the two front ropes are "Y'd" together and a single rope then goes to the door opening.

Next is the single rope , through a pulley, then to an arm attached to the door opener actuator arm (also in the pic is a white wire going to the opener door-bell switch... kinda makes it look confusing until you seperate the two)

last is an additional center cover support. It is stationary and not drawn by the door opener. Its job is to keep the center of the cover off the floor when the car is not present and the door is closed.

To answer a few questions: