Soft top cleaner

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Beardz

Active Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2009
Messages
231
Location
Northants
Car
Merc E220 (S212) CDi SE Exec Estate & Merc CLK320 Cabrio A209
Hi everyone I am looking to give the cabrio roof of my clk a clean for the first time and was wondering what recommendations you might have for obviously cleaning the roof but also protecting it and keeping it looking in the best condition?
Cheers
 
Cleaning wise I've always found a diluted citrus degreaser to be more effective than the dedicated cleaners. Those 500ml bottles are fine on relatively clean fabric, but if you've got some mould etc on there then regular rinsing and lots of scrubbing with some decent brushes are your best bet.

Don't go straight to the nail brush if you can, soft brushes will damage the fabric less in the process.

Any fabric protector designed for mohair will be fine but assume it will need topping every 2-3 months if you want to keep it all protected. Everyone has their favourites but having used plenty in the past they're all pretty much the same in longevity.
 
Cheers, luckily no mould or stains are on the roof but I’ve been out a couple of times and got caught in the rain and now it needs a bit of a clean.

Will bear your comment on protection longevity in mind and only use soft brushes to avoid damage
 
Halfords do a great big 'bodywork brush' (which has no place anywhere near your paint!), that's a decent shout for easy maintenance
 
As above, a citrus based cleaner is excellent for soft-top cleaning, much better than those marketed as dedicated soft-top cleaners.

The fabric has a nap which usually goes across the car diagonally so follow this with a brush, depending on how dirty it is you may need to go through the cleaning phase more than once.
Make sure you rinse super thoroughly, pressure washer is fine with some common sense applied, i.e not holding the lance 1cm from the fabric!
The roof needs to be 100% dry before applying a protection product. Gtechniq I1 is excellent, pour into a jug and liberally brush on the fabric with a paintbrush. You will probably use around 1L on a CLK sized roof.

cheers,

Chris
 
I use Johnson's Baby Bath for cleaning our Saab's hood - recommended to me ages ago by a detailing guy. It does an excellent job, and it's cheap. Milton's sterilising tablets (for baby bottles) kill off green mould spores - mix to the strength recommended, apply with a nail brush, leave for 5 mins, rinse....job done, no more green! For reproofing, the same guy recommended Fabsil, 2.5ltr cans are under £20 - apply to the hood with a 2" brush when it's bone dry after a thorough cleaning...it has a very noticeable restorative effect too, giving the hood a much deeper colour. I do ours once a year, still looks good!

Pete
 
Arghhh ! I don't have the "solution" to your problem but I do know that you need to clean and then seal your hood.
(Due to past ownership of SAAB and Porsche soft tops)

So look for advice on how to clean and separately seal your hood.

(No different to cleaning and separately sealing your bodywork, wheels etc...)
 
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I use Johnson's Baby Bath for cleaning our Saab's hood - recommended to me ages ago by a detailing guy. It does an excellent job, and it's cheap. Milton's sterilising tablets (for baby bottles) kill off green mould spores - mix to the strength recommended, apply with a nail brush, leave for 5 mins, rinse....job done, no more green! For reproofing, the same guy recommended Fabsil, 2.5ltr cans are under £20 - apply to the hood with a 2" brush when it's bone dry after a thorough cleaning...it has a very noticeable restorative effect too, giving the hood a much deeper colour. I do ours once a year, still looks good!

Pete

I forgot to mention - only use the blue Baby Bath, not the lilac coloured one as it's got a different formula and doesn't do anywhere near as good a job! Also, handy hint for cleaning the inevitable bird-crap off the material - carry a bottle of fizzy water in the car, wipe off any excess with a paper towel or whatever, then pour on the fizzy stuff....the bubbles lift the gunge out of the material very effectively.

Pete
 
As above, (Blue Johnson's and Fabsil) did this for the 5 years with the Saab and 2 with the CLK (along with a light vacuuming twice a year)
 
Tried the Johnson's Blue Baby Bath and a sponge and the roof came up a treat. Thanks for the advice.

Now I just need Fabsil Gold to come back into stock on Amazon and jobs a good un
 
I recently had to give the 968 cab roof a good clean, not been done for a few years. Renovo cleaner with their stiff sponge and following the instructions worked superbly - but I was amazed how long it took with the hose to get the soap and dirt off the roof. You put the soap on with a paint brush after spritzing the roof with water, let it soak for 10 mins or so then spritz with water and scrub with their stiff sponge, then put the water hose on. Seemed like it took 1/2 hour to rinse all the soap and crud off, but the end result was far better than I expected so once the hood was dry I went straight to their proofer rather than having the fun of using their re-colourant (which is a PITA as it's thinner than water and gets everywhere, easy to get off the paintwork when wet but a PITA once it's dry!!).

I've also used Fabsil as an interim top-up of the waterproofing before, but mainly becaus I had half a can left over from something else! It woked fine.
 
Hi everyone I am looking to give the cabrio roof of my clk a clean for the first time and was wondering what recommendations you might have for obviously cleaning the roof but also protecting it and keeping it looking in the best condition?
Cheers
I've been using AutoGlym cleaner and protector on my Audi for a while now. Have experienced good results and the roof smells lovely afterwards also. After using the protector, lot's of lovely beading after it rains. I just runs straight off.
 
I've been using AutoGlym cleaner and protector on my Audi for a while now. Have experienced good results and the roof smells lovely afterwards also. After using the protector, lot's of lovely beading after it rains. I just runs straight off.
+1 for Autoglym, used it on my MR2 a few years back. Roof was dirty, no mould but a few stains. Looked like new after a soak and scrub with Autoglym. Rinsed off and applied the sealer, can’t remember the names unfortunately.
 

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