Tonneau Cover

What exactly is the Tonneau cover for? Do you drive with it? Is it easy to put into place?

Nathan, think of it as an alternative to putting the top up when you leave the car outside. Basically, it covers the cockpit area from the base of the windshield to the rear deck. On my VS, I used to leave it in place draped down behind the seats so that it would be ready to cover the cockpit when I left the car. It had a zipper in the middle, so you could actually drive with only the passenger side covered; it looked pretty cool in a classic sports car kind of way.

John is talking about a "full" tonneau. Sometimes people will also refer to a "1/4" or "1/2" tonneau by just calling it a tonneau. These are the covers you see that cover just the convertible top when it is folded down. Or covers the top and the entire back area.

It is preferable to have at least a 1/4 tonneau to give a clean look to the back when the top is down. It is also important because at higher speeds without this the air can catch the top, fill it with air and start to pull the top up from the stowed position.

I have seen them done as the same color as the car and as the same color as the interior. Some are in the same material as the top, and some I have seen are done in the same material as the interior seats.

Hey Moe, I can verify that what John and Steven have said above is all true......use mine all the time...

Nathan -

This might give you an easier visual reference to tonneau;

Pic below on left is Full Tonneau (with zippered cover as Johnny2Bolts mentioned)

Pic below on right is 1/4 tonneau as Steven mentioned.

Nathan, here's a look with the top matches the interior color and material...

"D"

Thanks for the info guys, I guess I was mostly wondering about the full tonneau cover. do most replica makers provide either a 1/4 or full etc.. ?

Hey Moe, I think what everyone is saying is that you use the different covers for different situations, so buy both.....
nothing is free, all the makers provide both covers...

I think it's a good idea to enclose all that open space. For my reasons, it would have looked goofy without one. I'm also using it for structural support.