— Soft tops
How to clean
a fabric soft top.
Sometimes a soft top needs extra care. Revitalising. It’s a job that can be slotted in mid wash. On a car that is already wet, using a stronger SUDZ solution. A stiff convertible roof brush is the only extra you’ll need. It’ll reach into the fabric weave for a deep clean. Then SKIN goes over the top of it like everywhere else to protect and bead.
01 Summary
The short version
Seven lines, and the last one is the one that makes it look new.
- Do it mid wash: After the ZEST pre wash, FOAM snow foam and the SUDZ shampoo. Before any protection.
- Mix 40ml to 60ml of SUDZ into a litre of warm water.
- Work it into the fabric in sections with a stiff convertible roof brush.
- Jet wash the roof off thoroughly.
- Spray SKIN over the clean roof for a hydrophobic layer.
- Leave the roof up until the fabric is completely dry.
- Once it is bone dry, lift the fine lint off with tape or a lint brush.
02 The measure
A solution of its own
40ml to 60ml of SUDZ in a litre of warm water. Sixty if the hood has been left a while, forty if it is kept on top of. That is lance strength shampoo in something you can put a brush into, and both halves of that matter: a bucket mix is nowhere near strong enough for fabric, and a lance cannot reach into a weave.
Warm water rather than cold. It makes a noticeable difference to how quickly the solution starts lifting what is in the weave, and on a fabric roof that is most of the job.
Mix the full litre rather than a splash in the bottom of something. You will go back to it over and over, washing the brush out and loading it again, and running out halfway across a roof is how you end up with a tide line.
This is a fabric hood. Vinyl is a different job, and if yours has been treated with something already, check with the roof maker before you start. Either way, try it on a corner you cannot see first.
03 The clean
Seven steps, roof up throughout
The measure below is read straight from the bottle, so it says the same thing here as it does on the label and in the calculator.
Where it fits
-
01
Partway through the wash, on a wet car
This is a fabric hood. Vinyl is a different job, and if yours has already been treated with something, check what the roof maker says before you start.
ZEST first, then FOAM, then jet the car off. Shampoo it with SUDZ as well if you are doing the full wash. Only then does the hood get its turn, on a car that is still soaking and has already had the worst of the road taken off it.
What matters is that it happens before anything protective goes on. A sealant over a roof that has not been cleaned yet is a sealant you have to take back off.
The deep clean
-
02
Mix it stronger, and warm
SUDZ Luxury Car Shampoo
40ml to 60ml of SUDZ into a litre of warm water, and 60ml if the hood has been left a while. That is lance strength shampoo in something you can put a brush into, which is the point of it: a bucket mix is nowhere near strong enough for fabric, and a lance cannot reach into a weave. Warm rather than cold, which makes a real difference to how quickly it starts lifting.
Mix it in anything that holds a litre. You will go back to it repeatedly, so make the full litre rather than a splash in the bottom of a bucket. Try it on a corner first if you have not cleaned this roof before.
- Dilution, foam lance (1L)
- 40ml - 100ml in 1L
- Dilution, bucket (10L)
- 40ml - 100ml per 10L
- Dilution, soft top (1L)
- 40ml - 60ml in 1L
-
03
A stiff brush, worked in by sections
A stiff convertible roof brush, not a wash mitt and not the soft brush that does wheels. Fabric is a weave and the dirt is down in it, so the bristles have to reach.
Work a section at a time and keep going back to the solution. Wash the brush out in it as you go and load it again: a brush full of what you just lifted out is a brush putting it back. Keep the whole roof wet while you work across it.
-
04
Jet wash it off
Rinse the roof off properly, working down so nothing runs back over what you have just done. Fabric holds shampoo, so give it longer than a panel would need. Check the seams and the trim round the edges as well as the middle.
Then pick the wash back up wherever you left it. The hood is done and the car is still wet, which is exactly where the next stage wants it.
After
-
05
SKIN over the roof as well
SKIN Hybrid Wax Spray Sealant
When the protection stage comes round, take SKIN over the soft top along with everything else. On freshly cleaned fabric it leaves a hydrophobic layer, and water beads and rolls off a hood the same way it does off paint.
It goes on wet and rinses off wet like the rest of the car, so it costs nothing extra in time. Doing it on a roof that has just been deep cleaned is the whole point; on a dirty one you are only sealing in the dirt.
- Dilution, foam lance (1L)
- 100ml - 200ml in 1L
- Dwell
- 60 seconds
-
06
Dry it with the roof up
Pat the worst off with a towel rather than dragging it, and leave the hood up while it dries.
Folding a damp roof away is where the smell comes from, and where creases set into fabric that was fine an hour before. Give it as long as it needs.
-
07
Lift the lint off once it is bone dry
Leave it overnight if you can. A hood that feels dry to the hand at five in the afternoon usually is not, and this last step only works on fabric that is completely dry.
Wrap masking tape round your hand with the sticky side out, or take a lint brush to it, and go over the roof lifting off the fine debris no amount of washing gets. It takes a couple of minutes, and it is the difference between a hood that is clean and one that looks new.
04 Pitfalls
Where it usually goes wrong
- A bucket mix. It is nowhere near strong enough for fabric.
- A wash mitt, or the soft brush that does the wheels. Neither reaches into a weave.
- Letting the solution dry on the roof, or leaving it sitting in the seams.
- Sealing a hood that has not been cleaned first. You are only locking the dirt in.
- Going at the lint while the fabric is still damp. It does nothing until it is bone dry.
- Folding the roof away before it has dried right through.
05 Product information
Check the product and the roof
SUDZ includes a soft-top dilution in its product information. Confirm compatibility with your roof before choosing it; otherwise use the roof maker's recommended cleaner.
Washing the whole car while you are out there? The full wash runs through all eleven stages, and the dilution guide works out the measure for whatever you are mixing it in.