Easy guide to parking a car?

You just reminded me of them driving the Minis into the bus in the Italian Job :-)

If it's just for the one car, maybe buying one of those after-market electronic parking sensors that fit to the car might be an idea? (might be overkill, actually, because it sounds like you just need one sensor in the middle of the bumper, rather than several front/rear)

cheers

Jules

Piece of string hanging from a hook on the wall - with a weight. Can be fine enough to be barely visible to anyone who doesn't know it is there. Slight nudge with car is obvious.

Or a plant - and see when a stalk moves.

A dip at the right place will do just as well. If it starts with a shallow slope a foot or so short of the final position and has steeper back face the car will just find it's place for you. The steep back face is to stop the car rolling forward out and into the wall (hopefully...).

Or park lining up the nearside mirror with something a few feet away. That can be surprisingly accurate.

Strip of rubber sheet or carpet attached to wall and park by touch?

I've got a short drive & my new car just fits. To save having to inch up to the front wall of the house without bumping the car I'm trying to find an accurate ?tactile? way of marking it, without attaching something to the front of the house. (A visual mark never quite seems to work quickly).

The drive is made of drab crazy paving (to be replaced)). I'd thought of something like trying to screw / stick a broom handle onto the drive for the front wheels to butt up to (? not attractive, but not really visible when the cars there. I'm hoping some bright spark's got a better way.

Michael

I'll park it for you.

My grandad used to use a block of wood on the ground, with a pole sticking up with a tennis ball on the end. When the tennis ball moved, he stopped inching forward.

Pete

I've got a short drive & my new car just fits. To save having to inch up to the front wall of the house without bumping the car I'm trying to find an accurate ?tactile? way of marking it, without attaching something to the front of the house. (A visual mark never quite seems to work quickly).

The drive is made of drab crazy paving (to be replaced)). I'd thought of something like trying to screw / stick a broom handle onto the drive for the front wheels to butt up to (? not attractive, but not really visible when the cars there. I'm hoping some bright spark's got a better way.

Michael

How about parking it where you want it, then kicking a housebrick in front of a front wheel? Next time, just inch up to the housebrick.

Many years ago I used to visit the Ford plant at Dagenham. Can't recall exactly why, but when the finished cars were driven off the end of the line some of them had to stop for a few seconds in a certain place, then move on.

The engineers considered photo cells, limit switches etc. One of the fitters solved the problem by hanging a tennis ball on a piece of string above the spot. When the ball touched the windscreen the driver stopped. Total cost about 20p!

I would also suggest the house brick method is a good one and one I have used myself for years.

HTH

Jonah formulated on Sunday :

except loose objects tend to move or even be moved and could be a trip hazard in the dark.

When parking in a really tight spot, so tight that I have to get out to check space, I set myself a marker on the ground by the side of the open drivers door - anything works, pen pebble, discarded cigarette packet just as a reference point.

The same trick could be used to solve your problem...

Park in the correct spot, open your door, look down and find a point on the door sill and make a temporary mark on the ground to line up with it. Now make the temporary mark on the ground a more permanent one - drill and fix a screw, chisel a mark, or mark it with an angle grinder.

Been there done that in a short garage. Not quite so suitable for a driveway. Currently have a garden cane in narrow flowerbed between end of drive and house.

I am disappointed that this thread attracted so many replies before an angle grinder was suggested.

Tennis ball would be blown about by the wind, so combine 2 suggestions: hang the house brick...

My thoughts also. And Saniflo's weren't even mentioned.

Got a 8ft of 2x4 on the hard standing. Just before the 18ins drop into the yard

Thanks for all of the replies. There are several main ones:

1. Tennis ball / bit of string: I remember seeing that one in an old =91How=92 annual when I was a kid. Thing is - it's a drive, not a garage, so there's nothing to attach a tennis ball to. The string would (IIUC) would cause problems for anyone going into the house.

1. Using a visual marker. I've tried that, but small variations in the way you approach the drive or how you're sitting in the seat mean that it doesn't really work reliably.

2. Electronic sensor: I=92d need it to be accurate to within an inch or
3. My understanding is that they=92re not normally quite that accurate. It=92s also expensive.

1. The housebrick is one I'd thought of. 2 points - i) It would move, unless attached ii) I might not always hit the brick (there=92s enough width on the drive to miss it).

I'm thinking that a variant of 4 is probably the best idea - namely a thinish tree stake stuck (glued &/or screwed) to the drive.

Michael

Well I hesitate to suggest that what you need if these methods all fail, would, of course, be car body filler...

Or drill a hole with a cheap SDS drilland put a bamboo cane in it......

We haven't had "just sell the car and use public transport instead" yet, either.