• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

cleaning the vinyl

Share this page

M

Mike_Bouse

Guest
Guest
Offline
Well, FrankenStein slowly progresses to being a resurrection success; and i do mean slowly.

Brakes are refurbished and bled. Carbs have been cleaned, and beg to be tweaked. Keys have been ordered. I am drooling over the catalogues waiting for payday, so I can begin to order trim parts. Some of the carpet has been removed to reveal pristine floorboards (hooray)! A spare tire rim has been acquired and refurbished.

Jeff, if you are reading this, i am about to call you for a <s>play </s> "work" date.

I see that the car came with what looks like the original tonneau (sp?) cover, and the orginal convertible top cover. I think the minor tears can be addressed and the missing snaps put into place. However they are a bit grungy. I think with a good cleaning they can be salvaged.

what should i use for a cleaning agent? is it ok to use a stiff bristle brush?
 
I have had excellent success with Westley's BleecheWhite, a tire/vinyl cleaner for all colors of vinyl. Spray it on (don't breathe it!), use a soft brush to get in the grain. then rinse VERY well. Follow with your favorite UV protectant.
 
To be safe, try to test an area first to make sure it's color fast. Wesleys' makes great products, but I don't trust old parts to hold their color with any cleaner.

Better safe than sorry.
 
I had great success in the past just cleaning it with water and detergent and a wahing-up brush. After it was dry I put on shoe polish using a shoe brush. It helped soften the vinyl, colour it and protect it. It also lasted a surprisingly long time.
 
Absolutely Paul, test first. But I have to say, I've been using this stuff for ages and never had a problem. I will WARN you NOT to leave it on bare aluminum for more than 30 seconds or so, works great on brake dust too, but don't let it sit too long. On even the grungiest vinyl or rubber, it will make it new again. ymmv, I'm sold. Be sure to us a vinyl/rubber dressing (I use Griots stuff or Lexol Vinylex) as a top coat.
 
I have used a spray foam product called "The Tannery" that looks like shaving foam. I think that there are lots of good products out there but they should all go on like window cleaning spray and then immediately foam up. This will allow you to use the product in vertical or hard to reach areas. This particular one has some sort of vinyl softening agent as well as a soapy cleaner and something like Armour All as a finisher all bound up as one component. I use this along with a surgical scrub brush (the best thing going, durable but gentle) for the field areas and an old (soft) toothbrush or Q-Tips for seams. Works like a hot dam, without colour loss, at removing the crud that gets into the fine grained areas that tend to make vinyl kinda have that overall "grungy" look. I then finish by buffing the whole thing down with an old piece of flannel bed sheet and then using one of the off the shelf vinyl sprays to act as a sealant.
 
I've had great success with a product called "Simple-Green".

You can find it everywhere in Canada, can't say about the states. It's basically a degreaser, it's harsh on dirt and oil, but will not damage anything, and is environmentally safe.
I use it a lot, but my most impessive result was a moldy, fingerprint covered, stained headliner in my 1980 320i which came out like new! It's also good for a hundred other things, like put it in a spray bottle and degrease your engine etc.


Adam H.
___________________________________________________________
1973 Triumph Spitfire.
 
Mike, use petrol based hand cleaner with pumic,not the water based type.Stiff bristle brush, rinse with water,dont get any on the windows. For the windows use 3M final finish after you wash them,follow the directions on the bottle,I use a power buffer. I have done this many times,and it makes a crap looking top/tonneau look qite respectable,even able to see out the window. Plastic windows are acrylic,3Mfinal finish is for acrylic paint.....tape off the top edges around the windows before you use the stuff,else it gets in the grain of the top and is a pain to get out. Another so called trade secret.
 
Well, the top is too far gone to even consider cleaning. Just the tonneau cover and the top cover.

Now that we are on the subject of tops/covers can i ask this, please.

I do not understand the usefulness of the removable curved piece at the back of the top opening. the 'vert top, the top cover and the tonneau cover all seem to need this piece to be in place for the snaps that are on it.

Why does this piece come off? What purpose does that serve?
 
Re: cleaning the vinyl; now removable curved piece

Mike_Bouse said:
I do not understand the usefulness of the removable curved piece at the back of the top opening. the 'vert top, the top cover and the tonneau cover all seem to need this piece to be in place for the snaps that are on it.

Why does this piece come off? What purpose does that serve?
Click to expand...
Do you mean part # 12 in this illustration from Spitbits ?If so, the top should be anchored to that, and in turn it screws down to the rear tonneau rail with two acorn-head bolts. The top material wraps around the piece and is held there primarily with the three snap bases; in turn, the tonneau or boot cover snaps to that.

Does that answer your question?
 
Re: cleaning the vinyl; now removable curved piece

Your answer raises more questions that it answers. Yes, this is the piece i am asking about. There is no way the top that came with the car could wrap around this piece.

I could understand better if the following were true...piece #12 is off the vehicle and snaps from the top are applied; then piece #12 is screwed to the body, using the acorn head bolts to gain tension and tightness to the top. is this correct?

the car came with zero instructions on anything. I am familiar with Italian sports cars which use no snaps, and do not use tonneau covers.

Wyatt, are you talking about the dash board part? I am not sure what all i need for the dashboard yet, but am certainly gonna need to pay you another visit. I'd like to get the Spit running and drive it up there sometime this spring. that will prove to be the most useful for both of us. I was saving this conversation until i had a road worthy vehicle. Dash is outa commission. Daytime driving only. have brake lights but no others.
 
Back
Top