Preventing paint damage from bike rack

[BrianK]

Does anyone have any tips to preventing damage to my car’s paint from a trunk mounted bike rack? The rack has foam pads at the contact points and they cause fine scratches in the paint. Other than make sure the pads and paint are clean before putting on the bike rack, are there any other tips people have for minimizing damage to the paint?

[Slider]

On my rack, when on my Jetta Wagon, the main points of contact are the glass of the rear window and the license plate.
The glass is plenty strong for even three bikes (at least so far!) and I don't care if the plate gets scratched up.

The mounting worked similarly on the hatchback I had previously. The straps themselves don't hit any visible surfaces, since they hook around the edge of the rear tailgate, top and bottom.

If you have a regular trunk lid, aiming the lower mount at the license plate at least solves half your problem!

Slider

[BrianK]

Good idea. Unfortunately I have a sedan and the plate is on the bumper, so no glass up top and the plate is on the bumper where its too low to position the bottom support ƒ¼

[deano]

my jetta has a lot of scratches on the spoiler from my trunk rack....I used to put socks on my pedals to prevent the scratching

Other than that, the best advice is to get a roof rack....I learned the hard way. Its more expensive, but after using it for one season i realize there is no better way to go

[huff'npuff]

I don't know how much this will help you,but I put a good(extra) layer of polish & wax,and use some glycerin where the contact points are. It helped me. I usually carry two bikes.

[Quo Fan]

I have a company car, so I don't care if my car gets scratched, and I'm not allowed to install a roof rack on my car.

[BrianK]

Yeah, waxing often is probably the best idea. I'll do that.

Thanks for the tips!