Products to clean/protect convertible roof?

[Dale Stevens]

Anyone able to recommend any products for keeping my convertible roof waterproof please?

Anyone tried Autoglyms Soft Top Clean & Protect kit? Is Fabisil any good? What do you all use?

Thanks.

 

[JBell]

The AG kit is excellent

 

[Wighty]

Milton baby bottle tablets are good to neutralise any green mood in the roof .
A watered down APC (all purpose cleaner ) spray is a cheap way to clean the roof as well .
Johnsons blue baby shampoo is a good shampoo for cleaning the roof .
Fabsil Gold is what I use to proof the roof , applied with a 3-4” brush from a plastic butter dish or ice cream container (twice a year ) . It’s a lot cheaper than the specialist roof stuff .
Gratuitous photo below

 

[Wighty]

Renovo make some good kits and their paint to re colour a roof is the “go to” for this job

 

[Blobcat]

I used the Autoglym kit as I had it for free, works well… @Wighty has some good advice above

 

[Mark A]

+1 for Renovo. Did a great job on my old CLK430.

 

[Chrishazle]

Renovo's kit is a 3 product job - as I know from my 968 cab days. The first is a shampoo that you apply with a coarse sponge, does a superb job but takes forever to rinse off with a garden hose, you then have to wait a good while for it to dry before moving to stage 2. This is a re-colourant for your roof colour, it's thinner than water, gets everywhere (especialy where it's not supposed to), is easy to remove when wet but a bugger when dry so masking up is mandatory as is care to see where it's gone - but it does a superb job. Again it's wait a good while for it to dry, and do not fold the roof for at least 24 hours after applying or you'll get white fold lines (ask me how I know!!). 3rd stage is proofer, easily applied. On my 968 cab it lasted well, I sprayed Fabsil Gold a couple of times over the next 4 years (as I had the can) and it still looked OK when I sold the car.

 

[Dale Stevens]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've just realised I have a tin of Fabsil Gold that I bought last year to re-proof a caravan awning that I never got around to doing, so I may give that a try on the roof. The roof looks very clean, so would it be worth using a cleaning product first?

 

[drmw]

Yes - two counts. One, it will get rid of stuff you cannot see (but will later) and two, the shampoo gets rid of old proofer which is essential

 

[Dale Stevens]

Yes - two counts. One, it will get rid of stuff you cannot see (but will later) and two, the shampoo gets rid of old proofer which is essential

Might buy some Renovo cleaner then, and then apply the Fabsil proofer, or is it best to have the cleaner and proofer by the same manufacturer? I see that Fabsil also do a cleaner, but made for tents etc instead of cars.

 

[Wighty]

Might buy some Renovo cleaner then, and then apply the Fabsil proofer, or is it best to have the cleaner and proofer by the same manufacturer? I see that Fabsil also do a cleaner, but made for tents etc instead of cars.

View attachment 78353

Manufacturer name matching doesn’t matter .
Renovo make a good cleaner as do all the other makes that label the convertible roof stuff
My suggestions above were cost based . If you do the roof twice or 3 times a year the costs add up . If that’s not a concern just buy Renovo or AG cleaners . They won’t perform any differently to my suggestions though .

 

[rayhennig]

Years ago we got something from the chandlers at Thames Ditton when we had our boat there. I worked pretty well.

RayH

 

[Dale Stevens]

I'm trying to think whether my CLK240 has a black roof, or blue? The car is currently at the audio specialist getting reversing sensors, camera and stereo fitted so I will have to look when we collect it. Does the cars VIN help clarify this?

In other news, just come across an old thread for MB (Mercedes Benz?) top cleaner..

Soft-top MB waterproofing kit

I saw a post elsewhere where television recommended this for an R129 SL. What does the kit consist of, how is it applied and how frequently should it be applied? I'm eagerly awaiting spring so it would make sense to get a kit in readiness for the panoramic to be hoisted up to the garage...

forums.mercedesclub.org.uk

 

[Wighty]

I'm trying to think whether my CLK240 has a black roof, or blue? The car is currently at the audio specialist getting reversing sensors, camera and stereo fitted so I will have to look when we collect it. Does the cars VIN help clarify this?

In other news, just come across an old thread for MB (Mercedes Benz?) top cleaner..

Soft-top MB waterproofing kit

I saw a post elsewhere where television recommended this for an R129 SL. What does the kit consist of, how is it applied and how frequently should it be applied? I'm eagerly awaiting spring so it would make sense to get a kit in readiness for the panoramic to be hoisted up to the garage...

forums.mercedesclub.org.uk

In the picture it’s blue .

 

[fabes]

Over many years of Saab and CLK soft top cleaning, I ended up with.
1. Hoover the roof.
2. Milton's if there is any green (rinse)
3. Johnson's bluse baby bath and a soft nail brush (rinse until no bubbles)
4. Fabsil by paintbrush, when dry (avoid a dry line)

AG is good, but I found the above better (certainly Fabsil)
Renovo, I found, added colour which I didn't want (on a test patch I had to then reverse clean off).