CA1200574A

CA1200574A - Automobile cover

Info

Publication number: CA1200574A
Application number: CA000434299A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Hector Simard
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1983-08-10
Filing date: 1983-08-10
Publication date: 1986-02-11

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

A weather-protective cover, of rectangular shape, for at least the roof and the windows of a conventional car.
The cover has at its periphery a reinforced edge provided with a multitude of equally-spaced eyelets, into which is threaded a single elastic cord which carries hooks at the four corners of the cover. The cover is laid over the car and the hooks are pulled outwardly and hooked onto opposite mudguards and door handles of the car, thereby stretching the cord and gathering the cover edge tightly against the car surfaces. Cover handles are attached to the cover to facilitate its removal when the hooks are released.

Description

~20~574 FIELD OF THE INVENTION
Thi-s invention relates to weather-grotective means for a motor vehicle and, more specifically, to a new and im-proved automobile cover.
BACKGROUND OF T~E INVENTION
Portable coverings for motor vehicles are well known.
They are generally within two patent catego~ies: coverings for open-top vehicles, such as Canadian patents 710,221, 773,967, and 927,875; and coverings for hard-top vehicles, such as U.S. patents 3,316,012 and 4,216,989. However, im-provements would be appreciated by motorists, especially con-cerning the cumbersome procedure for installing and removing many of these coverings, the complexity of the apparatus and the high manuacturing costs.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is the gist of the invention to pro-vide a cover for a car that is most efficient, very simple and fast to install or remove, very simple in construction and of low manufacturing cost.
It is an important object of the invention to pre-vent ice and snow from covering and/or damaging t;l~ r^of and the windows of the car.
- -Other objects of the inventio~ are to'inc~ease the durability of the w?ndshield wipe~s,;to'maintàin perfect w1nd-, shield visibility at all times and to provide a car cover of a very small storing format and o~ low ~eight.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The weather-protective cover of the inyention is a flexible weatherproof sheet which may be fabricated so as to conform to the shape of all or a selected portion of any con-ventional car~ The cover is of rectangular shape and may be

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~2C3q~574 f stored in the ylove compartment when not in use. Th~ cover has at its periphery a reinforced edge provided with a multi-tude of equally-spaced eyelets, into which is threaded a single elastic cord-carrying hook element around the cover.
The cover will protect at least the roof and the windows, and especiall~y the windshield wipers.
When the cover is laid over the car, the hook ele-ments are pulled outwardly, stretching the elastic cord ac-cordingly and are made to releasably engage with opposite mudguards and door handles o~ the car to thereby mai~nta~n the central portion of the cover in taut condition and gather the cover edge portion tightly against the car su~.faces.
Preferably, cover handles are attached to the cover to facilitate its removal when the hook elements are released.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Figure 1 is a perspective view of a weather-protect-ive:cover, as attached to an automobile shown in dashed out-line;
Figure 2 is a lateral view of the embodiment of Figure l;
Figure 3 is a sectional view of,a portion of the cover hiding a windshleld wlper;
Figure 4 is a sectional view o~ the mu~gu~..rd, co ., , . , ,, ................. ~, .. : .
which is connected the cover-retainlng hook, as ta~n frcm section line 4-4 of Figure 2;
Figure 5 is a sectional view of the doox handle, to which is connected a hook, and as taken along section line 5-5 of Figure ~;~
Figure 6 is a plan view of the automobile cover;
Figure 7 is a sectional view taken longitudinally of~
the peripheral cover edge, showing how the elastic cord is -~ ~l2~S7~

threaded through the eyelets and how it carries the hooks; and Figure 8 is a section along line 8-8 of Figure 6.
DETAILED DESCRXPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In ~igures 1 and 2, the weather~protecr~ve means, generally denoted 10, is shown as being re'easa~ly connected to an automobile 12. Protective means 10 is made of a flexible and waterproof material of such area as to be'deployable over the roof and windows of car 12. In showing protection of only a part of the car illustrated implies no limitation on the size of the p~otective mèans 10 used with the inventi'on or on the extent to which it may protect the motor vehicle surfaces.
Full or partial car coverage may be provided while ce~ialning within the claimed scope of the invention.
The protective means material is preferably made of some form of weather-resistant fabric or plastic, such as transparent polyethylene. The same conforms ~enerally to any shape of conventional automobiles and allows air circulation in-between.
The protective means 10 is conr~cted at given par~s of the car 12 by releasable retention means 14. To install the protective means 10 over the car 12, one has to simply lay the former over the car roof, and engage the retention means 14 accordingly to protect the car windows. To r~ove thé
'1: , ' protective medns 10, grasping means'I6 ~a's:bee ad~ed over the , same. Hence, one has to release the retention means 14, and by using the grasp~ng means 16, pull the protectlve means 10 outwardly of the car 12.
Referring now to Figure 6, the weathe--protective means 10 ls shown as being made of a large rectangular flex-ible and, preferably, waterproof sheet 20, ha-~ring at its peri-phery a reinforced edge 22 bored by a multitude of equally-, ~z~?S74 spaced eyelets 24.~ P~ single elastic cord 26 is threaded through the eyelets and its ends 28 extend from two ad.~acent eyelets 24, so that one may pull and knot the same; to tlghtly adjust cord 26 around the automobile at -the base ,of the windows~
The retention means 14 include cord 26 and further consist of plastic-covered hooks 30 and 32 adapted to hook to the mudguards 34 (Fig. 4) and to the car door handles 36 of car 12, respectively.
Each hook 30, 32 has an eye 3~ through which is slidably inserted a loop 26' of cord 26, said loop extending from two adjacent eyelets 24. The mudguard hooks 30 extend from the four corners of sheet 20, while the door handle hooks 32 extend from the longitudinal edges of sheet 20 at the required positi.on for hooking onto car handles 3fi The elastic cord 26 may be of a l/4'' diamete.
~ . ~ . .` ! ` ' As best seen in Fig. 7, the eyelets 24 ensure that the cover sheet edge 22 will not tear under the stretch.ing stress that will be imposed.
The grasping means 16 preferably consists of a pair of handles 40 hinged in sleeves 42 secured to cover sheet 20 opposite the car roof when th~ sh2et 20 is in oper--ative po'sition; after release of hook.s 30, 32-,.the ~heet,20 is easlly removed by pulling handle.s 40, possibl'y together with overlying snow or ice.
The overall protective means 10 as illustxated weighs less tllc~n two pounds and is foldable in a compact dimension so as to be storable within the glove compartment.
When in operative position, the fxont portion of ', the sheet cover 20 completely shields the car windshield wipers 44 and wiper pivotal arm 46, since the cover edge 22 12~S7g lays over the car hook ~8. Hence, the windshield glass 50 is fully protected against bad weather, for instance ice-generat-ing weather, when cover edge 22 is installed over the car.
The car roof is indicated as 52.
Once the sheet 20 has beén placed over car roo.F 52, the hooks 30 and 32 are pulled and made to hook the car mud-guards 34 and car handles 36. The hooks are kept under ten-sion by elastic cord 26 and the latter also gathers the cover edge 22 tightly against the car surfaces.

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Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclu-sive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A weather-protective cover for an automobile comprising: a single generally rectangular flexible water-proof sheet, having a reinforced folded peripheral edge provided with a multitude of spaced eyelets transverse to the plane of said sheet; a single elastic cord, threaded back and forth through at least a large number of said eye-lets and having portions extending along the inner face as well as the outer face of said folded peripheral edge, said cord stretchable to form a few loops by the pulling thereof from spaced points of said peripheral edge between corresp-onding few pairs of adjacent cord-threaded eyelets; and hooks, releasably carried by said cord loops and engageable with protruding portions of said automobile; the portions of said elastic cord extending along the inner face of said folded peripheral edge being thereby directly applied against the body of said automobile whereby said folded peripheral edge define access openings between said body and said sheet to permit air circulation therebetween at least in the region of the windows of the automobile.

2. The protective cover of claim 1 further in-cluding a pair of spaced handles hinged to said sheet and spaced inwardly from said folded peripheral edge, to facili-tate removal of the same when said hooks are released.

3. The protective cover of claim 2, wherein there are four hooks, at each of the four corners of said sheet, adapted to engage the automobile mudguards, and two addition-al hooks at the longitudinal sides of said sheet, adapted to engage the door handles of the automobile.

4. The protective cover of claim 2, wherein said cord has free ends which can be knotted together to adjust the length of said cord.