Convertible – Soft Top Cleaning & Restoration
Getting The Roof Clean
With any convertible roof, the process starts by vacuuming off the roof and scrubbing with a brush to remove any loose debris, once you have used the vacuum, you can then brush the roof to loosen more of the dirt within the fibres of the roof, after using the brush give the roof a further good vacuum.
Soft Top Cleaning Mercedes Roof Before, this roof was so dirty and dull.
Once you have carried this out the next stage is to deep clean the roof to remove all stains, algae, moss, road film and in ground grime and dirt.
First of all wet the roof fully, then lightly agitate this with the brush to make sure the roof is ready for the cleaner, to provide deep down cleaning actions.
Work in sections with the roof, the sections we advise to work on is all the joint lines and beading areas, making sure you pull these on one side as best as possible to ensure the brush fibres get down beside them fully.
Soft Top Cleaning Mercedes Roof Half Way Through Being Cleaned.
Then start to clean a section at a time cleaning the full roof, scrubbing as you go, spraying the cleaner on working this in to the roof, as you are cleaning this you will see all dirt and grime lifting out of the roof.
If the soft top has a stain on it DON’T scrub this section as it will possibly spread the stain further over the roof, the best way to clean this is spray plenty of cleaner onto the stain and then allow this to dwell for about 5 minutes and then vacuum this out lifting the stain out rather than spreading the stain.
Once you have cleaned the full roof, you can then proceed to power wash the roof to fully remove all the dirt and debris that has come out of the soft top while cleaning.
Then once you have done this it’s advised to vacuum the roof again to remove as much of the excess water and to remove even more grime and dirt.
Make sure the soft top is now fully dry before apply your canvas dye to the roof.
Soft Top Cleaning Mercedes Roof Fully Cleaned + Colour Revived, ready to be water proofed.
Starting the colour restoration
Before starting the process to dye the canvas roof, make sure you mask up the car or the boat painted areas.
If you do happen to get dye on the paint work don’t panic as the products are water based and can simply be wiped off with damp soft cloth.
Mask up all windows including the rear plastic screen to ensure no dye gets onto these areas.
As the canvas dye is water based and a high concentration this can be thinned down for best results to ensure that the dye gets deep down in to the fibres, this can be your first coating, once that has been applied you can then apply a second coating if required.
Pour your canvas dye into a separate container and start in the centre of the roof working outwards towards you brushing in the dye in nice even strokes, when applying the dye make sure you’re in shaded conditions and it’s not too hot as the dye could dry uneven and look streaky!
Continue to dye the full half of the roof then go to the other side of the vehicle and just overlap the centre starting point and start the process again working from the middle going outwards towards yourself.
Once the roof has been fully coated over the dye will take approx 3 hours to dry fully, then go back and inspect the roof once dry, if it requires a second coating follow the above steps and then wait another 3 hours for the roof to dry again.
Time to waterproof it!
Make sure before applying the water proofer that the roof is 100% dry.
Then pour some water proofer into a separate container and using a clean soft brush apply a liberal coating of water proofer to the roof starting in the middle of the roof working your way out to the edges then go to the opposite side of the roof and start again.
Making sure you give a generous coating around beading and seams to ensure the water proofer penetrates deep down into all seams and joins.
Allow the water proofer to dry overnight then a second coating can be applied if desired.
Once the water proofer is fully dry you can give the roof a coating of the canvas water resistance enhancer to provide even great protection against the elements of daily use.
After carrying out this full process this will provide a brand new looking roof once again that is fully water proof and sparkling new.
