nikemart

I am new here so maybe someone has already come up with this idea, but I would like to share something I did to protect my Corvette's doors and paint when I park in the garage. When I get out of the car once I have pulled into the garage, I have to be very careful or the opened door will rub/hit against the wall. I have had the car for a month and, although it is a 2009, it is "new" to me and the people who previously owned this car REALLY took excellent care of it and I don't intend to do otherwise. I have researched the wall bumpers on various sites and I think they cost too much. If you want a bumper of considerable length, the cost is even more. So I pondered what I could do to protect both the car and the garage wall at a minimal expense. I went to Lowes, bought a 6' length of 3/8 PVC pipe and the foam insulation wrap that fits around it. I guess I could have used just the foam insulation, but I wanted the PVC pipe to give the foam some structure and to keep the foam from giving in when the car door touched it. The foam insulation is nice and soft and will not mar the paint on the car door. I used 1" (2 hole) metal straps and wall anchors and screws to affix the pipe and foam insulation wall bumper to the garage wall. First I opened the car door to see where to position the assembled bumper...I wanted the black pad on the door to come into contact with the bumper...not the painted section of the door. My brother accuses me of being **** about details and caring for the car, but I really didn't want to mar the beautiful paint job on this car. I really wasn't worried about the garage wall so much...I can always spackle or redo drywall. I cannot paint my Corvette. Anyway, my solution to the problem of hitting the garage wall with the car door is simple and inexpensive...total cost of everything was about $6. You can get whatever length of foam insulation and PVC pipe that you desire and the cost will be much less than the short wall bumpers available from "Corvette stores." Maybe someone else has a better solution to this problem. I am interested in hearing how others have remedied the issue of hitting the garage wall with the opened car door (other than purchasing the commercial wall bumpers). As I stated, I am new here and a novice when it comes to Corvette ownership.

ChevyDave

awesome!!! pictures would be nice too.

nikemart

Thanks Chevy Dave.
I tried to post 2 pictures to a) show the wall bumper and b) show how the door contacts the bumper, but I was unsuccessful in doing so. I am not used to all the options on the forum yet and not sure how to upload photos. Hopefully, I'll figure it out and post the photos. Sorry.

franman69

you have to host your photos on a photo site that allows external links for other site like this forum.. I use public folder in dropbox (free).. other use other free photo hosting sites....

Gearhead Jim

We tried a similar setup for our grocery-getters (Corvette gets the middle bay!) but without the PVC tube inside the insulation. Didn't work very well, the insulation sagged too much unless we had too many support brackets.

I'll definitely be trying this method!

djohnson00

A quick easy way is to just buy pool noodles and cut them in half lengthwise. . Saves a lot of time and effort and works great.

4SUMERZ

I think that you have a great idea on how to protect your doors from the sidewalls of your garage. KUDOS on the idea.
I built my 2 car garage, to house only 1 car that I have for a cruiser, whatever that may be. (At this time it's a vette)
The only other time a vehicle, other than my vette is parked in there, is to change oil in it.

My car sits in the middle, unless it's being stored for the winter, at which time I park it on one side or the other. That gives me lot's of room for projects, and getting my snowblower in and out without disturbing, or being anywhere close to the car.

[IMG][/IMG]

EVRose

When I read the title to this thread I was sure I was going to be seeing this...

DigitalWidgets

I've also used some of that foam pipe insulation for my Corvette door protection. In my case it was a garage refrigerator with a double danger....opening the car door into it, and even worse the refrigerator door into the car (worse because the kids and wife open it all the time). I just used the sticky adhesive that was already on the foam pipe insulation, and it's been on there two years now...so far no damage!:

carsangelop

I took a piece of carpet pading about 6in wide and about 4ft long and used some 2 face tape.Works great

nikemart

Thanks for all the replies...after I sent word to my brother about what I had done, he then informed me that he had used the pool noodles...I am real interested in hearing the story about EVRose's wall bumper! That has to be quite a tale!

23outlaw

Must have been going pretty dam fast when he hit that wall

y2krtaf

Clean entry too!