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I'm clearly thinking to hard about this ...

The 20" star that goes on the hood - how is that measured? I can think of several possibilities:

1: draw a circle with a 20" radius - inscribe a star so that the 5 points lie on the circle
2: number the points of the star 1, 2, 3, 4, 5: The line from point 1 to point 3 is 20"
3: number the points 1-5: draw a line from point 3 to 4. A line drawn from the midpoint of that line to point 1 on the star is 20"

I have more interpretations, but they just get more bizarre. My guess is option #1 or #2.

Any insight?

OK, here is the method I used. Sort of a bastardization of your option #1.

The star's diameter is measured from edge to edge, through the center point, so 10" would be your radius. I started with a piece of poster board material (about $1-$2 at Walmart), picked a center point, then marked the star points "azimuths" by using a protractor and putting a mark at 72 degree increments all the way around, giving me 5 equally spaced points in a 360 degree circle. Then, I measured out the 10" along these marks to give me the points and I connected the dots. I checked it to make sure it looked right, cut the star out, taped it to my hood in a couple spots (first I marked the center point on my hood), lined up the star using a 2' straight edge to get the star "pointing" in the right direction and eye-balled the alignment and adjusted. Once I was happy with the alignment, I lightly run a pencil along the inside of the poster board template, pulled it out of the way and used blue tape to mask it out. I think it came out pretty well.

I'll be darned if my high school geometry teacher wasn't right - I would need to know this stuff one day.

Thanks Mike.
Especially for reading what I meant & not what I wrote. A 20" radius star would be a bit huge - might as well paint my whole hood flat white.
I'm going to cut out markings from magnet-backed vinyl. It is sold by the sheet as cut-your-own HVAC vent/register covers. The current paint job on my M only looks good at a distance - not worth my marking "for real".

A word of caution for your magnetic vinyl markings. They will hold moisture under them and promote rust, make sure to remove them periodically and let the areas dry.

Bert

Thanks Bert.
Only plan on putting them on for parades & taking them off right after (like the pioneer tools - too tempting for someone to "borrow" from a parking lot).

T. Highway wrote:A word of caution for your magnetic vinyl markings. They will hold moisture under them and promote rust, make sure to remove them periodically and let the areas dry.

Bert