Tips on avoiding faded car paint when you leave it outside

Hey gang, Brian Cooley here with another one of your emails about high tech cars and modern driving. This one comes in to Roadshow from Greg van der M who says, I often have to leave my car outside undriven for long periods, up to weeks at a time. What would you recommend to keep the car in good shape and avoid the notorious paint fade? Interesting how your mind first went to paint fade My mind first goes to the rubber seals. Those are the ones that I worry about the most with cars left outside. I think number one is ultra-violet, that will kill everything. That's where you get a lot of paint damage, that's who you get interior damage, that's where you get Rubber seal damage. I think that also even contributes to tire destruction. I mean some tires go bad with almost no miles on them because of ozone and I believe ultra-violet raises hell with rubber as well. So this is your biggest issue, get a car cover. Now I will say this, there's a ton of good car covers out there. But if you're in an area of inclement weather, I don't think any cover makes sense to have on the car out when it's pouring rain or to have snow on it. The car cover companies would argue otherwise. I just find that to be a big sloppy mess sitting on your car. So, i've never had a great answer for that. Now, wet outside is one thing, dry inside is another. Get one of these little pots of desiccant. You leave it open in the car. This is great to avoid that musty, moldy, slightly misty haze in the glass that makes you go "uh-oh". The thing got wet when it was sitting here. The battery, of course, is a no brainer. You might be right on the bubble depending what you mean by a few weeks at a time. More like a month, I would definitely put a tender on it, especially modern cars that tend to be doing something electrical all the time, even when their off. And locked. And these things aren't very expensive. As soon as your car is outside and someone does steal it, it won't cost much to replace it. And as I mention, protect the rubber seals, many of which are exposed. I must have every rubber protected and restorative in the world. I'm not sure which one works, but I tend to use the lall. The one I dread is having to go to the most expensive oem rubber, especially if it's out of production later and go through the process of fitting it because it never fits quite like factory. I am kind of a fetish towards getting those seals protected and hopefully they never need tending and after all this I think you're paints gonna do okay because factory paint these days is almost like factory armor. If you do leave you car out for months versus weeks, you might wanna use some fuel additive to keep the gasoline from gelling. And by the way, window tint can also be a help in some of these areas. I'm gonna be doing a trip out to 3M headquarters in the Twin Cities soon. We've had a lot of questions about the latest in tint technology and how it's applied We'll have that story coming up soon. Keep those emails coming, I'm here to answer your questions about high tech cars and modern driving. It's cooley@theroadshow.com. [MUSIC]