First order of business is to lay the fabric out in the general position of the finished installation. It's good to have an assistant here, but the job can be done by one person. You need to stretch the cover out and align it so that it is symmetrical left to right and overlaps the doors the same amount on each side. Do NOT assume that the zipper is in the exact center of the cover, and do NOT use the zipper for center alignment reference.

Get a grip at the front and rear edges of the cover near two of the studs closest to the center line of the car. Stretch the cover taught lengthwise and position it to have the same amount of overlap past the studs at front and rear. Now per the LTD instructions, mark the location of the tip of the studs on the fabric, and install those 2 LTD fasteners. This is the point in the procedure where it pays to take your time and get it aligned well, because the first 2 LTD fasteners determine the final alignment of the cover and how it will look when it's finished.

The job only gets easier from here. Go to the opposite side of the car and repeat the procedure for 2 more LTD fasteners near the centerline of the car. This time you will also stretch the fabric sideways slightly to assure that there are no loose spots or puckers in the fabric in between the fasteners. Continue alternating left and right sides of the car, stretching, marking, and installing the LTD fasteners until they are all in place. Then for each side, stretch the fabric over the turnbutton, mark a line on top of the button for the location, and install the turnbutton eyelet.

If your car does not have the studs at the front corners of the cover and you decide to install them there, here are a couple of precautions. First, when you are thinking where to locate the stud, check underneath the dash to be sure you are not going to drill through into some vital organ. Most likely there will be nothing fragile there, but there are metal body channels in the vicinity, and you may want to steer clear of those if you're installing a nut underneath.

Also do not locate the front corner studs too close to the sides of the body where they might interfere with the path of the side curtain when you close the door. The front bottom corner of the side curtain actually travels in an arc just a little inside of the edge of the windscreen frame the door closes.

Just one more thing. At some point you will have to open and store the tonneau cover when you want to drive the car. We cover that too, just flip the page.