Keeping water out of the bed area w/a car cover

nosirrahg

Having been forced to move my '80 El Camino outside, I bought a water resistant car cover to keep water from leaking around the rear window and such. So far so good, but I now have trouble with water pooling in the bed area on top of the cover, so I have to regularly go out and raise up the cover to keep the water from sitting in one spot and either ultimately leaking through the cover, and/or causing it to fail prematurely.

Since I don't drive the El Camino that often, I was thinking about possibly building some type of A-frame our of PVC pipe that I could put in the bed that would raise the cover up to deflect rainwater. But before I start measuring and buying pipe and such, I thought I'd see if anyone else might have a better/cheaper idea. I'd like to have something that I can easily lift out of the truck when I need to use it.

Any ideas/suggestions/pictures of this or other successful approaches would be greatly appreciated!
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El Camino - the original crossover vehicle.

elcamino74guy · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 5:43 am Post subject:

I had a similar problem before getting a storage space for mine. I actually took some old adjustable shower curtain rods that were laying around and adjusted them to fit between the walls of the bed. I had two of them and put them before and after my wheel arch bump-outs.

That seemed to keep the cover from drooping. Kind of like the support bows you get with a soft tonneau cover.

It wasn't perfect but it kept most of the water from pooling.

Happy

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74 El Camino Classic - project car #1
96 Camaro - RIP, Traded 10-16-2007

2008 Mustang GT, It ain't a Chevy but at least it's American!

mgs72elky · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:37 am Post subject:

If you just want a quick, cheap, and fast solution. How about one of those inflatable swimming pool 'footballs' they use under pool covers?
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Mark
1972 Elky Picture Album

74elko · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:24 pm Post subject:

What about an old milk crate turned upside down with a traffic safety cone on top inside of the bed?
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-Andrew, 1974 El Camino, 305

nosirrahg · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 1:19 pm Post subject:

All three of those are actually great ideas. Unfortunately I don't have any of those things lying around, but I do like the idea of something inflatable that I could just stick under there. The cover is fairly thin, as I managed to tear a small hole in it when I experimented with trying to put the cover on with the tailgate down to let the water drain. With as many kids are there are on my street, I'm thinking the inflatable route might be safer than something more rigid that could either damage the truck, the cover, or a neighbor's kid.

Now that think about it, somewhere at home I've got a big vinyl inflatable "Fox Sports" blimp that length-wise would be ideal...it may not blow up enough to raise the cover as high as I'd like, but if I can find a couple of milk crates or something equivalent to put underneath it, it just might work. And that'll be easy enough to take out when I get ready to go somewhere.

Thanks for the ideas; I think I can cobble something together...I just have to figure out where I stored that blimp. At least I've got a small air compressor now and won't have to blow the thing up on my own!

nosirrahg · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 12:43 pm Post subject:

Promotional Blimp + Ice Chest = Success! Thanks guys!