Soft Top Servicing

Yearly Soft Top Roof Servicing

This is a fairly easy but somewhat time consuming job. However, if you maintain the roof, you are less likely to have problems later on. Fixing a broken roof or replacing it can be a lot more costly and painful than yearly maintenance.

Lubrication Of The Roof

Ideally, you shouldn’t need any lubrication. The natural plastic-on-plastic lubrication is recommended as the lack of lubricant reduces the amount of dust and debris build up as it becomes trapped in the lubricant. However, as plastic ages and wears, it may be necessary to add a very thin layer of grease to keep things moving. Once you start adding grease, it’s important that everything is cleaned and regreased every year.

Greasing the system is just masking issues. When the roof eventually fails, it’ll be so much worse.

Recommended Grease

If you really feel like you have to grease the roof components, consider 1 of the following.

Lithium grease
Silicone grease
Red rubber grease

Do NOT use copper grease or aluminium grease.

Roof Bars

You don’t need much for this. A cut down paintbrush, your Mum’s toothbrush and some grease. You only need a very thin layer. Using too much will very quickly make things worse.

First off you need to clean the runners. You need to remove all old grease and crap. You need a cleaning spray or maybe a steam cleaner. Clean out the channels with a toothbrush.

Get your cut down paintbrush and distribute lithium (LM) grease through the roof bars.

Distribute it with the toothbrush.

Make sure you get the lithium grease right down the runners attached to the car.

Operate the roof back and forth a few times to distribute the grease. You can also use spray lithium grease.

Rubber Seals

Using a rubber seal tretment like Gummi Pflege Stift, clean and condition all of the seals.

Roof Canvas

Over a year, the roof can get dirty. Bird poo, tree sap and general grime will stain the canvas.

Using a medium stiffness brush, brush all of the loose detritus off the roof.

Spray on your roof cleaning spray. These can be bought online from eBay or car shops like Halfords or Pep Boys etc.

Rub it into the roof with a moist clean cloth…

…scrub the cleaner into the canvas with the medium bristle brush…

… until the roof looks even and clean.

Remove as much of the cleaner as you can using a clean wet cloth. Then pat dry with a clean towel.

You should then have a roof conditioner spray in the kit. This keeps the canvas flexible. Rub it into the canvas with a damp cloth and then clean it off with a clean damp cloth.

Allow the roof to dry naturally before carrying on to the next step. You’ll need some waterproof spray, either for soft tops or tents etc.

Mask off the area surrounding the roof. Test on an inconspicuous area in case it turns your cabrio to shit.

Spray approximately 30cm from the roof. Overlap each spray and keep it even.

Do 3 or more full coats (finish the can), allowing each coat to dry for an hour.

Allow the last coat to dry for a full day. Brush the whole roof down with the medium bristle brush.

Depending on how dirty your roof gets and if you park under trees, you may have to redo this every year or 2. Obviously read the instructions on your products.