

| Subject: | Five years on homemade tyvek Westy cover--here's how it had done |
| From: | Jim Felder |
| Date: | Mon, 12 Sep 2016 17:58:11 +0000 |
It's been about five years since I bought $40 worth of tyvek on eBay and sewed my own westy cover. It was a pretty easy weekend project even on the very slow machine I was using back then. I was looking at it on the car today and realized I had promised to write a review in the future as to how it has held up. Here goes. Remember that this is not any kind of heavy duty stuff like the professional covers probably are, but just cheap plain old tyvek. 1. It's still hanging in there, maybe another year or two of life in it, maybe more with a little work. 2. It shrinks. If you use it, make it fit loose. Mine fits like my Westy has put on a little weight. Other than the shrinkage, the material hasn't seemed to degrade any that I can tell. 3. If you use a machine with an external light bulb, turn it off. The bulb bulb will burn a hole in the tyvek in a nanosecond. 4. Provide LOTS of drainage for the luggage rack. If I do this again I will sew in a mosquito net or other type of screen to drain water. If you don't, you are going to get soaked when removing it after a rain, and worse the weight is going to tear they tyvek. I have some small holes now but they need to be larger. 5. No need to do anything fancy for access, no zippers or such. Very easy to get into the car, any door. 6. Ice is the worst. If it gets wet underneath in the winter (and it will) the cover is stuck to the car. 7. It does a beautiful job of protecting the finish from tree sap, falling berries and bird droppings, and it keeps the car wonderfully cool in the summer. 8. The place that gets the dirtiest now are the wheels where rain splatters debris up onto them. If I do this again I will consider bringing the cover to the ground. 9. Strong winds can blow it off if you don't have ties (I do, but don't often use them). Jim
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