I think I may have asked this before, but I'm looking for those silver reflective material covers that people drape across their car boots while leaving them open at obedience shows. I looked on Ebay but must have been using the wrong search terms, can anyone help? :-)

Space Blanket scroll down the page.

Yes, that's the sort of thing, thanks! :-)

Mm, looking at it a bit more, 7ft x 5ft seems awfully big to cover the rear window of a Mondeo. They don't seem to have any smaller versions. Any more ideas anyone? I'll have a google tonight, now I know to search for 'space blanket', I'm on a very slow computer here. :-)

If it is to cover the boot whilst the boot is open then if anything it may be a bit small :-) You need the cover to come down over the sides as well to stop the sun from shining in under the edges of the sheet. I use a cheap windscreen cover - those fold up concertina type ones- and then use a Value Tesco white bed sheet to drape over the actual tailgate.The silvered screen cover helps to stop the heat from going through the window and the sheet provides shade but also allows a breeze too.

That's true, and yes I do a lot of rally trials where we leave the dogs in the crate with the boot open, I wanted a bit of extra shade for them. Thanks, I'll go for the big one then I think! It looks like some string should be ok to tie it on with.....

I use a set of plastic clamps such as the ones in the following link - pound shops usually sell them very cheaply and B&Q type stores normally stock them
http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=plastic+clamps&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-Address&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7ADRA_enGB449&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=421377528439815307&sa=X&ei=uw0PUKmILYGH0AWV84D4Ag&ved=0CH8Q8wIwAQ

Excellent thanks. I'd be surprised if the place I work for didn't stock them, I'll have a look on Friday. :-)

Hmm, the ones my company stocks are rather too powerful a spring, I'm only weak and pathetic, not sure I can open and close them multiple times to fix them on at each corner lol! Are the ones you linked to reasonably easy to open and close - they do say 'powerful spring' as well.....

Not sure about the strength of the spring of the ones I linked to as I was just using those as an example although mine are quite strong - they are often used as cramps in woodwork so need to be strong. I don't have any problem at all with them - the hardest part is finding a part of the tailgate which is thin enough to fit within their jaws. I use large ones for holding the cover on to the tailgate and have several medium and small ones for affixing other areas.

I actually use a very large tarpaulin to cover the open tailgate and use the clamps to hold the tarpaulin to the tailgate and then I have two tent poles to hold out the rest of the front of the tarpaulin which I put into two eyelets of the tarpaulin and secure with two guy ropes. This gives me a tent like structure which provides shade in the sun and a dry area if it is raining. I don't open the tarpaulin fully to the ground so there is good ventilation all round - tents get very, very hot in the sunshine. The area that is shaded is large enough for me to have a chair underneath it and for my dogs to lie in the shade with their leads attached to the towbar of my car. I have tried lots and lots of different methods to shade the car and this one works the best in all weathers. I use a silvered shade for the windscreen and then have the single fitted bedsheet along one side of the car which is held in place by just trapping parts of it into the car doors. I then use the small clamps to join the tarpaulin to the bed sheet and thus prevent any breeze from blowing the shading materials out of place and letting the sunshine in. My car stays completely cool and the dogs are more than happy to lie in their crates inside. As the sun moves round I just change the bedsheet to the other side of the car and I always make sure the rear of the car faces the opposite direction to the way the sun travels across the sky - east to west.