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Hi,

I recently moved interstate and for a few reasons it was most practical to leave the car in the backyard of some relatives. It's an NA with the white-paint-falling-off syndrome so I am not too worried about scratching it, but I have a factory hard top I'd like to look after if I can. My main concern is hail.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks

The hardtop is plastic, so it will deform under a hail strike, and rebound. I think , what have other experienced, eg in the hail that hit Canberra a couple of years ago?

I'd use an old blanket, or mattress protector/underlay (op shop ftw) separately secured under the car cover to be sure, Bonnet and boot would be more vulnerable than the HT, paint not the issue, dents will be!!

Agree that the bonnet, boot plus windscreen will be more likely to suffer damage than the hardtop.

I purchased a hail cover from Aldi when they were on special and it seems to be just a thickly padded regular car cover.
The QLD November 2014 hailstorm would have still left some dents and windscreen cracks in my Mazda 3, they were BIG hailstones (and wrote the car off), many bigger than golf balls.

If I were to leave a car for a LONG period with a cover on in the open, I'd go to Clarke rubber, get lots of their rubber floor mat squares to cover the boot, roof, windscreen and bonnet.

Lay a blanket or thick car cover down first, lay the rubber mats on top, then add a weatherproof cover on top.