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Back in March, in the course of the discussion about white vinyl tonneau covers, Wolfgang stated "I'd like to get one and paint it like the German flag!" This is an idea so worthy that it has cost me a couple weekends. It has also taught me a lot about the unreliability of masking tape adhesion to vinyl tonneau material, to the point where if I were starting again, I would probably do it all in brush work to start with, I have so much overspray touchup to do. The paint retention seems good, though. I used primarily Duplicolor sprays.

It is an interesting concept because you want to come up with a design that looks finished whether the tonneau is closed or open, and you also get extra credit for avoiding having to paint the zipper.

Wolfgang's idea is also food for thought about the online services that will print a photo onto fabric. I gave my wife a 6x2 foot wrap made from my photo of the lights of London by night, taken from the Shard, with the London Eye and the path of the Thames parts of the pattern. You could have a tonneau showing a road course map or a family photo or the Kennedy clan tartan or a trompe l'oeil thing where the closed tonneau is a photo of the open cockpit.

Can you tell my car is a common and unsexy color combination?

The photo shows the in-progress painted tonneau lying on top of the installed (also white vinyl) tonneau. I think all the ones that had been inexpensive on ebay are sold now.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/farsightful/2e3x63

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That's nicely done!  Sure, it's a lot of work and I have had the same experience with overspray and masking tape bleed, too, but you'll have something special in the end.

Like, Wolfgang, I'm only slightly more inclined to follow-through on ideas, but when I saw this pin in the Germany pavilion at EPCOT, I had just the place for it.  Been sitting there on the tunnel for over 20 years, now, and occasionally some little kid will notice it and smile.  It's on there for all the German parts around it and for my Grandmother, the hardest working woman I ever knew.

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Last edited by Gordon Nichols

I have not.  I know that she originally came from Dresden sometime in the early 1900's and met my grandfather at a "social" dance at one of the local shoe factories in town (early photos show that she was a hottie).  Beyond that, very little as she arrived alone and wasn't followed by other relatives (that we know of).

I have more info on my Grandfather's side, as we've been in this town/area since the late 1700's and are easier to trace as fortunes were won, lost and re-won.

Last edited by Gordon Nichols
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