The Pool Toy You Can Use To Protect The Paint Job On Your Car Doors

Opening the doors of your car can be a bit of a delicate art, requiring a spot of spontaneous visual calculus. You need to open the door just wide enough to get out but not so wide that you end up smacking against the walls of your garage, another car parked next to you, or some other sturdy, inanimate object. Unfortunately, we all make mistakes sometimes and end up opening the door in such a way that it smacks hard against something else, damaging both the door itself and your paint job. It's a rather miserable turn of events, to say the least.

If you have trouble keeping your car door from smacking stuff, there's a little trick you can use to give yourself some extra padding, whether you're opening it in a garage or out in the world. All it takes is a sturdy roll of duct tape and that old standby of the summer pool scene, the noodle.

Besides keeping your kids afloat in the pool and wetly slapping your friends upside the head, pool noodles make for excellent D.I.Y. bumpers for your car's doors. They're nice and light, so they won't mess with your car's movement or weight, but they're also thick and squishy enough to absorb sudden blunt blows. Even if you accidentally open your door too fast or hard, a pool noodle bumper will cushion the impact, protecting both your car's paint job and whatever was unfortunate enough to be on the door's receiving end.

To create a noodle bumper, all you need is a cheap pool noodle and some reasonably strong duct tape. You can get a multi-pack of noodles for around 20 bucks on Amazon or buy them individually at your local big-box or dollar store. As for duct tape, most name brands are fine, though if you want something long-term, you might want to go with Gorilla.

If you're specifically having trouble in your garage, carefully open your car door and mark the spot on your garage wall where it touches. Use the duct tape to fasten a noodle to that spot, cutting the noodle down to size with scissors if necessary. If you're having trouble with impacts on the road, this works in reverse, too – just tape a noodle to the part of your car door that seems most prone to impacts.