"CAR COVER AND CAR EQUIPPED WITH THE COVER"

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Field of the invention The subject of the present invention is a car cover, i.e. a flexible protective cover to be applied to the bodywork of a car to protect it from atmospheric and environmental agents when it is not in use. State of the prior art

Known are in the art car covers consisting of a sheet of plasticated material that is relatively thick and therefore relatively bulky when it is removed from the car and stowed on board. For example, document US-A-5364155 shows a car cover of this type, provided with a bag for storage inside the rear luggage compartment of a car, that can be positioned on the outside of the same using special belts that allow the car cover to be extracted and applied to the car. In order to limit the space occupied, rolling car covers have also been proposed, provided with a take-up roller anchored in the rear part of the car, as in the case of documents US-A-4732421 and JP-A-55110622. These solutions are not only stylistically unsuitable because they alter the design of the car in an unattractive way, but also produce a car cover that is not sufficiently protective: in fact they are typically constituted by a simple sheet designed to be laid over the roof of the car, thus providing only partial protection.

Other more or less complicated solutions, as in the case of document US- 4925234, envisage that the car cover, even in this case only suitable to cover the upper part of the bodywork, is stowed directly in the rear luggage compartment of the car, significantly reducing the loading volume. Summary of the invention

The object of the present invention is to overcome these drawbacks, and to provide a car cover that can be stowed on board a car without limiting its normal loading volume and without altering its external styling features. Another object of the invention is to create a particularly simple and functional car cover, which is designed in such a way as to allow access to the interior of the car even when the cover is in place, without the need of removing it.

The car cover according to the invention is primarily characterized by the fact that it consists of a thin sheet material that can be folded into a recess of the

car body that is normally not used and that is accessible from the outside.

The term "recess that is normally not used" is intended to mean any receptacle other than the passenger compartment, boot and engine bay of a car, already integrated in the bodywork i.e. already existing since originally provided by the manufacturer of the car, but not destined to contain anything.

By way of example, such a recess could be defined by a hollow longitudinal moulding of the type applied to the rear or front bumper with a stylistic and protective function, or the cavity existing between the fuel filler cap and the related closing flap, or even the shell of an outer rear- view mirror, provided it can be opened or removed.

According to another advantageous feature of the invention, the sheet has a bowl-like shape designed to envelop the car substantially completely, and provided with at least a part that can be opened, advantageously to be positioned in correspondence of a side door of the car to allow access thereinto even with the car cover in place.

Brief description of the drawings

The invention will now be described in detail, with reference to the annexed drawings, which are provided purely by way of non-limiting example, in which:

- figure 1 is a perspective schematic view of a car cover according to the invention, applied to a car,

- figure 2 is a view similar to that in figure 1 , partial and on a larger scale, which shows the car cover folded in a possible first condition for storage,

- figure 3 is a view similar to figure 2, which illustrates how the car cover is extracted from the storage condition illustrated in figure 2, and - figure 4 is a view similar to figure 3 which illustrates the extraction of the car cover from another possible folded storage position. Detailed description of the invention

With reference initially to figure 1 , the car cover described in the invention comprises a sheet 1 of a particularly thin but strong material, typically of waterproof nylon which can have an internal acrylic coating, of the type used to produce items of clothing and similar items, currently marketed under the K-WAY

® trademark.

The sheet 1 is generally bowl-shaped, of a size such that when it is applied as in figure 1 , it substantially and completely envelops a car A that is equipped therewith.

In view of the very thin nature of the material it is made of, sheet 1 can be easily folded so as to take up very little space, so that it can be stowed even in very small receptacles, as clarified below.

A peculiar feature of the invention is that sheet 1 is provided with at least one opening part 2, which is connected to the remainder by a zip 3 or a micro- hook closing system, and positioned so that, when the sheet is applied to car A, the opening part 2 is located in substantial correspondence of one of the side doors thereof. This allows access to the interior of car A, by partially or totally opening part 2, without the need to remove the sheet 1 altogether. According to another peculiar feature of the invention the sheet 1, because of the thinness of the material it is made of, can be folded and stowed away even in quite small spaces, delimited by ^' already existing parts of the car that were originally envisaged by the manufacturer but which are not used because of their small size, provided that they are accessible from the outside. Figure 2 illustrates a first example of possible storage of the sheet 1 , removed from car A and folded inside an elongated compartment B located between one of the bumpers of car A (the rear bumper is illustrated in the example) and a hollow moulding C applied longitudinally to the bumper P with a protective function. Typically this moulding C, which, as said in the above is provided at the time of the manufacture of car A, can be separated fully or partially from the bumper P, for example making it tiltable in the manner depicted in figure 2, in order to stow or respectively remove the sheet 1 , in the manner depicted in figure 3, and apply it onto the car A. As an alternative, sheet 1 when folded can be stored in any other space, that would normally not be used, built into the body of car A at the origin and accessible from outside.

Another possibility is depicted in figure 4: in this case, the sheet 1 , which is shown partially extracted, is contained inside the space V comprised between the fuel filler cap not shown and the related opening flap T.

Another possibility, which is not shown in the drawings, consists of stowing the folded sheet 1 inside the shell of an outer rear-view wing mirror of car A, provided this is sufficiently large to hold it, and can be opened or removed from the outside. Of course the construction details and the embodiments may vary

considerably in relation to what is described and illustrated here by way of example, without departing from the scope of the present invention as it is defined in the claims that follow.