Covering the car, ok for paint ?

A good quality car cover is what you need. Not the cheap $20 thing I use on my car to keep my interior from fading while it is parked...

it should be fine as long as you have a good cover I wouldn't worry about it. It wont hurt your paint as long as its a good cover that is breathable and lets out moisture.

covercraft i believe is the name?

i was actually going to make a thread on this but ya beat me to it. i have mixed feelings on car covers. as stated above, a $20 car cover from autozone or walmart is going to cause problems. it WILL scratch, i speak from experience. i dont have a garage either. i am fortunate enough to have a carport tho. open ends and open sides, the car still gets nasty real quick but it does keep the sap and sun off of it. i bought a custom fit Wolf Evolution car cover ($165). its for indoor and outdoor. it is softer on the inside compared to a walmart cover. the rep at wolf said it will not scratch. well, he's wrong. i'm very picky but the cover will leave small scratches in the paint. i think alot of what contributes to this is wind ( moving the cover back and forth across the paint ). it is custom fit but any cover you buy will stretch and have some slack in it. also you gotta think all that crap that was landing on your car is now embedded in your car cover. back and forth motions is almost like mild sandpaper. wolf says the covers can be cleaned with a mild cleaner, like fantastic. they actually say to clean the cover while on the car. i am NOT spraying fantastic all over my car and stripping the wax.

currently i just have my car under a carport with no cover. it gets absolutely nasty but i only drive it on the weekends so before i want to take a drive, i just wash it. it gets way dirtier without the cover but the swirls and scratches seem to be less.

i would think whites, silvers, etc. , colors that dont show as many flaws like reds, blacks, dark greens, etc, would not show the scratches near as bad.

my thoughts are anything that is constantly in contact with the paint on your car is susceptible to scratching it.

but with the cover, the elements are kept off of it along with the cats.

sort of a catch 22

the guy who did the paint on my fairlane said to take something like soft blanket and put that on first, then cover it with the car cover. i'll ask him what kind of material he recommends

No problems here at all with my parts store cover. Paid 75 bucks I think, car does not get wet and it fits very well! Wouldn't even consider an expensive one.