306 Cabriolet roof - cleaning

5

505604

Well-known member
Fellow Frogger
Joined
Jul 12, 2002
Messages
1,185
Location
Junee, NSW
I'm interested to know how owners of 306 Cabriolets clean the fabric roof.

I have seen so many different recommendations online in the last few days! I have noticed a company in the U.K. called Cayman's who seem to specialise in the fabric roof of various cars. But they seem to indicate that the roof of the 306 is made of a different material. I'm unsure if their 'standard' cleaning is suitable or recommended.

I also have some mould on the roof and I'm very interested in knowing how you have tackled that problem. My last Cabriolet didn't suffer from the problem but this one … !

Cheers,
Andrew


Cabriolet roof.jpg
 
Mine gets a regular car shampoo wash when I wash the car. Looks great all the time!
 
Thanks, Tim. A few questions, if I may.

Is your car kept under cover? Or, even better, in a garage? (Junee is the dustiest place of all the farming towns that I have ever lived in. It’s a nightmare trying to get the dust and whatever else out of the roof material.)

Sort of related to that is, have you owned the car since new?

And lastly for now, any particular product that you use for the roof?

Cheers,
Andrew
 
Hi Andrew,

In answer to your questions:

* I have owned the car for nearly 5 years
* It is kept in a garage - not sure how the two previous owners stored it
* I just use a car shampoo when cleaning the roof along with the rest of the car. At the moment I am using Maguires Gold Class shampoo and conditioner. I just wash it on and hose down. It seems to do a good job.
 
Andrew, I don't know how to remove the mould which appears to be pretty strong. Normally you would use bleach but not in this situation. Maybe a bit of vinegar and a nail brush, then wash off with water and shampoo. Somehow you have to get back to Black material. It is porous if left in rain too long. I rectified mine ,once clean by spraying the material with Bowdens product Fabratection (a super hydrophobic fabric protection) and working it into the material. Bit expensive but result is great water and dirt just rolls off. Still have80 pct of the 500mls spray. Hope this helps Paul
 
There is a product used by car detailers which they use on fabric (and leather?) upholstery to kill mould, without damaging the material. I don't know the name of the product/s. As an alternative, maybe one of those cheapish hand held steam cleaners might do the trick? Maybe used together?
 
pink panther said:
Andrew, I don't know how to remove the mould which appears to be pretty strong. Normally you would use bleach but not in this situation. Maybe a bit of vinegar and a nail brush, then wash off with water and shampoo. Somehow you have to get back to Black material. It is porous if left in rain too long. I rectified mine ,once clean by spraying the material with Bowdens product Fabratection (a super hydrophobic fabric protection) and working it into the material. Bit expensive but result is great water and dirt just rolls off. Still have80 pct of the 500mls spray. Hope this helps Paul
Click to expand...
Thanks, Paul.

What I showed in the photo is just one small section of the mould! It runs the full width of the roof along both of the roof bars as well as being on other sections of the roof.

I suspect that it was there before I purchased the car but they had covered it up somehow. Because when the mould first appeared, it appeared with almost the same coverage that it currently has. It hasn’t been growing much, if at all.

Do you think that double strength vinegar or normal strength would be best?

I haven’t seen that particular Bowdens product, but I have been quite happy with the other things from their range that I’ve used. I’ll definitely be getting some.

But I wonder why detailers don’t have any idea of what to recommend I do with the mould and they don’t even suggest that they should be doing it. And it’s been the same thing with the various motor trimmers who I’ve spoken to. No one offers any suggestions or solutions.

“I dunno” is usually the response. If they say anything more than that, it’s “go and ask …. They’ll know what to do.”

Not helpful!
Peter C said:
There is a product used by car detailers which they use on fabric (and leather?) upholstery to kill mould, without damaging the material. I don't know the name of the product/s. As an alternative, maybe one of those cheapish hand held steam cleaners might do the trick? Maybe used together?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the idea of the hand held steam cleaner.

(I’m sure that my wife will love another gadget around the house. /end sarcasm
I have to come up with a good sales pitch. But will it be better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission? hmmm)

As I said to Paul above, detailers have never offered me any ideas or solutions. I’m wondering how I’m going to drag out of them the name of a product that they use! Maybe that’s where my wife can play her part …
 
Tim404 said:
Hi Andrew,

In answer to your questions:

* I have owned the car for nearly 5 years
* It is kept in a garage - not sure how the two previous owners stored it
* I just use a car shampoo when cleaning the roof along with the rest of the car. At the moment I am using Maguires Gold Class shampoo and conditioner. I just wash it on and hose down. It seems to do a good job.
Click to expand...
Thanks again, Tim.

All of the information that you and the other people are providing is really helpful for me. The older cabriolet didn’t have any of the problems that this one is having. (It just suffered an engine meltdown because the previous owner had bypassed the heater matrix.
With garden hose.
And no clamps.)

I had the cabriolet in the garage for the first four years that I owned it but when the second 406 arrived, it went into the garage. The cabriolet is awaiting a garage clean out so that it can re-enter.

I used an indoor/outdoor vacuum cleaner to vacuum the roof a day or so ago. I was amazed at how much dirt and dust was in the fabric! I did hose down the car, mainly the roof, after vacuuming it. I thought that there would be a big difference after that, and there was some. But the biggest difference in the look of the roof was between before and after vacuuming.

I presume that you mean Meguiar’s so I will look for the car shampoo you mentioned as well as using their PlastX for hopefully restoring good vision through the rear window.

(The mould appeared during the days that the cabriolet was garaged. It wasn’t exposed to a lot of rain. And when I inspected the car before purchase, it was under cover (huge carport) in inner Sydney.)

Cheers,
Andrew
 
If you decide to try this stuff, do a test spot on an inconspicous place, that probably doesn't exist.
 
Hi Andrew, I have brought up your problem with my local car restorer in Richmond nsw and he says that he uses a product I have never heard of . Its Doctor Mechanix 5 litre concentrated degreaser $16.71 at bunnings. He says just spray some on the affected area out of the sun when the roof is cool, and agitate with a soft kitchen brush and then wash off with copious water. Apparently it is slightly caustic and will kill the mould . He says he has done lots of tops and it works. Must try and find the product myself. Obviously keep it out of the sun while doing any of this. I would then wash it with the good Megiuars shampoo as previously suggested. Hope this helps Regards Paul. PS Local car restorer apparently comes from Junee.
 
Thanks so much for going to the trouble of finding that out for me, Paul.

A job for first thing in the morning these days. The roof gets pretty hot very quickly in this weather.

Cheers
Andrew
 
PlasiX works on the rear window, but it doesn't stay useable for long. There's a mob in Melbourne who make replacement roof fabric assemblies with windows in for about $1,100. There's a day's work and about 150 pop rivets to change the fabric, and it's a great opportunity to replace the elastic in the roof that stops it jamming and blowing hoses.
 
Bruce Llewellyn said:
PlasiX works on the rear window, but it doesn't stay useable for long. There's a mob in Melbourne who make replacement roof fabric assemblies with windows in for about $1,100. There's a day's work and about 150 pop rivets to change the fabric, and it's a great opportunity to replace the elastic in the roof that stops it jamming and blowing hoses.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the information, Bruce.

What do you mean by ‘it doesn’t stay useable for long.’?

And do you know who that mob is who makes the replacement roof fanfic?

I am having some success with rem the mildew from the roof, but it’s a long, drawn out proc

Regards, Andrew
 
The window was Ok after polishing inside and out with PlastX but was degraded to poor visibility after about 9 months. 2 years later, it's just as bad as it was before polishing.

Prestige soft tops prestigetops.com.au
 
I have realised that I didn’t provide any updates to this story. My apologies for neglecting to do that.

After many attempts at getting in contact with Prestige Soft Tops in Melbourne, - over close to a year! - I finally did get in contact with them but they referred me to someone else in Melbourne who referred me to another person in Melbourne who also has a business in Wodonga.

I took a trip there one hot day late last year and the owner of the business went over the car with barely more than a glance, it seemed to me! Obviously his experience was enough to make judgements about what needed to be done to get the right outcome for me. He was also concerned about his reputation, as he should be! I saw some of the work that was done at his business and he has a lot to be proud of.

Long story short is that the best way to resolve the issues is to replace the roof. The quote is for about $3500, but I don’t have it in front of me to check the exact amount.

I also specifically asked him about the patches of ‘mould’ as I have shown in my photos. He said that he has never seen anything like that before so that didn’t give me any comfort! He looked at it closely and said that he thinks it’s the oil has come out of the canvas. I asked him why it wasn’t all over the roof but only in patches. He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. I suppose that if he hasn’t seen that before, he’s not likely to know what caused it on first viewing.

Overall, he seemed very knowledgeable and professional. But that was only after I got to talk to him. First impressions were not so good, in my mind.

Once again, thanks to all here who offered helpful advice and tips and especially to pink panther who went out of his way to talk to a motor trimmer about this issue.

I’ll be happy to recommend him once I’m at home and have the quote in front of me with his details.

Regards,
Andrew
 
Out of interest, what have you tried, so far, to try and clean these patches off?
 
Peter, before I answer that question, I have to remind you that I was trying to remove something that wasn’t there! I was trying to remove the patches of ‘mould’, but they turned out to be patches where the oil in the canvas had dried out.

With that said, from memory, I used
  • vinegar and a stiff brush,
  • the non-caustic bleach from Bunnings. You mentioned it in your post, No. 9. I thought I was having some success with it but that might have been an illusion or just wishful thinking.
  • Mechanix Degreaser. I read the online reviews and I read the recommendation from pink panther. $17 or thereabouts, so I’m not going to break the bank if it doesn’t work. I didn’t notice any difference in the appearance of the roof, unfortunately.
I’m sure that I had tried a couple of different things before I came here to seek advice, but I don’t remember what those products were.

But again, please remember that I was wrong in my assessment of the problem. And I was trying to remove something that wasn’t there.

Regards,
Andrew
 
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