Recommendations for convertible top treatment

I just use soap and water, and Simple Green every once in a while if it is getting really dirty. That purple stuff works well too, anything that isn't too harsh. I use a large soft-bristle brush, but have used a cotton rag with good results too.

Avoid Armor-All. I had a friendly neighbor "help" me one time by slathering my top in that stuff as payback for showing him how to do a few things to pep up his miata. :-/ It is not something that you want on your top..........

Pat

for cloth tops i recommend 303 products. specifically there is something called '303 convertible top cleaner' and '303 high tech fabric guard.' they can be purchased separately or together in a kit. amazon.com has great prices on them. this product is what hartz, the near exclusive maker of all soft top fabrics, has recommended for years. recently they started to recommend something else called 'ragtop' which i have also used. this year ragtop changed their spray nozzle and made it impossible to use outdoors as the mist is so fine that it is blow away it even the most gentle of a breeze. and even though i applied it in a garage it failed to make my top bead water (rain). when i contacted the manufacture about why the new formula failed to work when it had worked the last time i has used it they were less than professional to say the least. that drove me to try the 303 products and i am very pleased with the results. the top beads water again. the 303 product has been around for over 20 years so must be doing something right. if you have a vinyl top i know the cleaner will work for you but i think you might want the '303 aerospace protectant' for uv protection and waterproofing if necessary (not the high tech fabric guard). cloth tops are much higher maintenance than vinyl so the protectant is not nearly as critical on vinyl as it is on cloth tops.

What about the fabric tops like that ofmy'03 SE?

red my post above. 'cloth' = fabric. for cloth tops: 303 convertible top cleaner to clean, 303 high tech fabric guard to protect from uv and waterproofing. for vinyl tops: 303 convertible top cleaner to clean, 303 areospace protectant to protect from uv and waterproofing. despite recently being recommended by haartz (the dominate maker of vinyl/cloth fabrics) ragtop brand products suck and cost more. 303 was their recommended product for over 20 years. seems that money is probable cause for their new endorsement as the product doesn't work as well. and the oxo feathered-tip wash brush is popular among detailers for cleaning soft tops. amazon sells all of these products.

We usually use Renovo products in the UK. Don't know if you can get them where you are. Armor All makes vinyl tops very shiny but is not supposed to be all that good for them in the long run.

The top cleaner ans treatment is from "RaggTopp". They sell it for eather top you want. Be sure you buy the correct treatment for the type of top you have. You can't use one on the other kind of top.

I have used RaggTopp on my Garnet Red LS top and it did a fantastic job of cleaning and waterproofing the cloth top.

Bruce Bing '03 LS

Go to "RaggTopp" and get their kit, cleaner and treatment for a cloth top. You will love it ! The top on my 2003 Garnet Red LS was dark and needed cleaning, I used RaggTopp and it came out just like a new top looked.

Bruce Bing '03 LS

i am glad that it worked for you but did you use it in the fall of 2006? i had successfully used it before too, in 2005, but they did something to the nozzel and the formula last year that has ruined the product. and the company did not stand behind their product and were completely unprofessional about it. i contacted them after it failed to bead water like it had done the previous time i had used it and first they said i must not have put enough protectant on the top. then they said that i probably put on too much. and then they sent an email written in all capital letters which was nothing short of insane. i won't repeated it publicly as nobody should talk that way to anybody, certainly not a company to a customer. i would think they would want to know when the application of their product fails in the field but what i learned is that this company appears to be run by a creep with a bad attitude and poor social skills. if you read the direction on the can you can tell how little thought went into them. compare that to the directions listed on the 303 products and you can see the difference in professionalism. 303 is a set of mature products that work great and had been recommended for over 20 year by haartz. ragtop is a new product with a company that does not give a crap about you or your car and i can only guess that they paid haartz for their endorsement which will probably come back to haunt them.

"BRUCE HASKIN" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@storefull-3335.bay.webtv.net...

when was the last time that you used it?

Armor All will also run down your windows and windshield, and onto your paint, leaving a slimy glaze on everything.

Iva & Belle.) '90B Classic Red.) #3 winkin' Miata

For a LONG time, even after washing it. That helpful neighbor of mine must have used half a bottle on my top, it had run down the windshield and collected on the wiper blades.

Nasty stuff, they do make a good glass cleaner, though.

Pat

Well, they have to - gotta clean all that crap off your windows somehow!

Iva & Belle.) '90B Classic Red.) #3 winkin' Miata

I sent for and recieved it in about July or so 2006. I used it again in Sept. When I put the treatment on, I put it on very heavy, ie. the top was "Wet". I waited about two days and did it again. I put water on it and found some spots that I had not put it on strong enough, so I went over those spots again. After that, it repels water very well. You do need to put a lot on to make it work. With 303 Protectant that I used on my '91, if you put that on too heavy, it does not look or feel good and needs to be wiped off to work well. Hear again, you should do it a number of times before it starts to look good.

I have the hard top on now, so I will let you know how it works and looks a little later in the year. :-)

Bruce Bing '03 LS

Hi Chris,

Gee, sounds like a bad deal ok. I did put the treatment on very heavy! (and in the sunshine, about 80 deg's F ) It took about two hours to start to look dry, even at that temp. I put it on so the cloth looked like I had just washed it with water, so I put a LOT on it. I felt it needed to soak into the mat'l. I ended up doing that 3 times the first time and the same again about 2 months later. Yes, is looked like it worked for me. Sad to hear you had trouble with them. That never makes customers come back.

Bruce Bing '03 LS

Thanks for the detail. The fact that you were about to do it in the sunshine implies that you could do it outdoors. I was able to do that the first time I used RagTop in 2005 but inn late 2006 they changed the nozzle to such a fine spray that even if held just a few inches above the top the slightest wind would blow it away. It was apparent that I had to do it indoors. Used the whole can in three separate applications, just like the first time, probably as generous as you were... but this time it didn't bead water. The process isn't hard but it is time consuming to clean the top, wait for it to dry, protect from over spray, and apply... and to have it not work is annoying. But my biggest complain isn't that the product failed to work, but that the owner of the company (seemingly a one man show) was a creep when asked about what could have gone wrong. Glad that it worked for you, however I caution that the experience with your next can might not be as positive.

Was your 91 a cloth or vinyl top? I'm thinking that it was vinyl since the

303 areospace *protectant* is for vinyl (the high tech fabric guard is for cloth). And that makes me wonder about your Ragtop application, was that for a vinyl or cloth top? My comments about Ragtop was for a cloth top (not vinyl).

Hi Chris,

The stuff I got was in a pump spray bottle. The cleaner and the treatment. Maybe they have changed the product from when I did mine ?????

Bruce Bing '03 LS

Yes, my '91 was a vinyl top and I used 303 Protectent that I got from Camping World for vinyl rollout sunshades on the sides of motorhomes. The RaggTopp (their true trade name) was for cloth top applications.

They both worked well for me. The '91 was the OEM top from '91 and it looked new when I sold the car a year ago. I do keep the cars in side a garage at night, but they are all time drivers. The '91 had 135,000 miles on it and my '03 has 63,000 miles on it. ( I don't believe in parking the cars and just looking at them.) I also drive them all year, sun or rain ( and we get our share if rain in Seattle :-) )

Bruce Bing '03 LS