Thoughts of winter will soon be upon us, and many owners will be selective when their car is used and some will be put away until the gritters have ceased operating. Thoughts turn to protecting the car, and consideration of car covers, dehumidifiers, air chambers or bags or sending the car away for storage come to the fore. Many of these considerations are equally valid year round too.

So, what to do ?

Firstly I’ll be making sure my own car is fully protected with a couple of late coats of Race Glaze 55 wax and the wheels also waxed – I use a product called Race Glaze Nano Wheel Sealant  which is made for the job. I’ll also probably wash it more often after use than in summer, as not only does it look terrible in winter, but it will wash the road salts off. I’ll also make sure discs are dry and shiny with a quick run and some hard braking.

I’ll cover the cover options first.

Simple indoor car covers, either a general fit for your size of car or fully custom made cover in matching colours to your paintwork can be supplied by several companies, including my own, Morethanpolish.com  – in fact, we supply most things, as the title of this piece is our motto ! I’ve always said in these articles that breathable materials are usually best, so I recommend our Peachskin covers or Soft Stretch covers for indoor use, as they won’t scratch and will allow air to get to the car. I don’t like cheap nylon or silver spray coated ones for these reasons. Indoor covers will keep dust off, prevent knocks, scrapes and accidents, but won’t keep cats off ! A custom made cover with smart mirror bags costs £160, Stretch Covers from £129, in a variety of colours.

A flexible alternative is a breathable outdoor cover, useful inside and out all year round, again standard or custom fit. They are usually silvery grey, so reflect UV and whilst they do let though a tiny amount of water in heavy storms, it soon breathes out again. My Porsche 944 collected a nice puddle on the rear deck which froze when it’s really cold, so they do work ! They pack up quite small so are good to leave on your car at airports or at shows, costing around £130-140. You can put them on a wet car, though ensure its fairly clean.

Totally waterproof covers cannot be put on a wet car long term, otherwise they may sweat, so are really suited to long term, or dry outdoor storage. Thus, they will need to be sturdy and tie down well, but may be the best things for projects turfed outside and if you don’t have a garage. Custom or standard fit is your choice, from about £150 to custom made in various colours, at around £3-400.

If you don’t have a garage, or the loan of one, you can buy inflatable bubbles for around £450 which you drive the car onto, zip up around it and inflate. Take care it doesn’t scratch when you inflate first time as you have to lay the material on your roof (lay a blanket on it temporarily) and allow a little for running costs. Rigid frame alternatives, a ‘garage within a garage’ like AirChambers cost about £600 for average sized cars (more on these subsequently) but are only suitable for indoors.

Dehumidifiers have long been used to create a dry-air environment in a garage, and provided its a fairly well built one and thus airtight, can keep rust at bay without working too hard. You can generally set the level of humidity you’re prepared to accept, and if you select a unit with continuous drain and auto-restart if there’s a power failure, you can stick one in your garage and forget about it.

When they’re not at work they consume only half a lightbulbs worth of electricity, and cost up to about 10 pence an hour working flat out. Suitable units start from around £165, at which price we recommend the Meaco DD8L Junior desiccant dehumidifiers, which work by drying out a water-attracting plate and provides only heat and water as a result, or hot gas dehumidifiers, the best being manufactured by Mitsubishi. Expect to pay at least twice as much for these. Coupled with a cover you’d then have good all round protection from airborne and physical threats to your pride and joy. A well sealed garage (and especially around the door) is optimal so you don’t have a constant influx of fresh air for the machine to work on.

AirChambers are the rigid-framed products using a fan to blow up to 40,000 litres of drying air around a sealed clear storage chamber (with zips so you can get in) similar to the non-rigid Carcoon, which cost about £50 less, though I consider the rigidity worth the extra small cost. Allow £20 a year to run. The more floppy zip-up but inaccessible Permabag, which relies on desiccant bags to dry the air out also costs about £750. These are undoubtedly seriously specialist to the issue, but effectively combine an airborne dust, mould and moisture and physical threat solution.

Finally, an honest plug for our Door Protector Pads – simply, if you’ve ever opened your car door onto the wall and chipped it, it may not be too late to buy a discrete 100x50cm self adhesive foam pad to save you doing it again.

For more information trawl the web or see our website site www.morethanpolish.com