• 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

How to revive my Soft top tonneu

Share this page

roofman

roofman

Jedi Knight
Offline
My Spit came with a pretty good condition tonneu cover to cover the convertible top when down , but it has some minor stains in the black leather. Is there a product anyone has used with good results to " re-blacken" the leather? Also, I am only kinda sorta sure it is leather, might be vinyl.
 
I've used the soft bristle brush with simple green with a little mild clorox added, used a mild degraser, so it's clean. I am 98% sure it's original and leather. Would shoe shine black work?
 
If original, and if Spits are like TR's, the underside of the tonneau should be a tannish/off white with a light print through it. Mine have always been more on the tan side, but I'm sure age and dirt have something to do with it.
You could try a vinyl paint. But because the tonneau flexes so much in and out of storage, I don't know how well it would hold up.
 
There are shoe dyes (available at shoe repair shops) that will change the color of the man made materials. Have used them on wife's (flight attendant, regularly walked across the U S and back) shoes with sucess. No cracks or bleed through. Should also work on tops, etc. Try it on a small area first.

Be careful with Clorox, it is a bleach and will remove color.
 
Thanks for the tips.
 
I've cleaned both new and old vinyl using Lacquer Thinner. Works like a dream and gets grease and dirst out from even the small patterns and doesn't dissolve the vinyl like acetone would (in case you were thinking of trying it). After cleaning with thinner, I go over it with something like windex. I might try the lacquer thinner first on a small area (I used an old toothbrush as a scrubber).

You can also soften up a stiff tonneau by throwing it in the dryer for 10 minutes, but do it when the wife won't be upset with the clanking noises the lift the dot thingies make.
 
Yes it still fits, the shoe polish idea worked good and it's looking good.
 
CraigLandrum said:
I've cleaned both new and old vinyl using Lacquer Thinner. Works like a dream and gets grease and dirst out from even the small patterns and doesn't dissolve the vinyl like acetone would (in case you were thinking of trying it). After cleaning with thinner, I go over it with something like windex. I might try the lacquer thinner first on a small area (I used an old toothbrush as a scrubber).

You can also soften up a stiff tonneau by throwing it in the dryer for 10 minutes, but do it when the wife won't be upset with the clanking noises the lift the dot thingies make.
Click to expand...
Lacquer thinner contains acetone (usually) and given a little time will definitely eat vinyl. A "safer" solvent, harmless to vinyl, paint and even lacquer finishes is VM&P Naptha. It smells like paint thinner -- dries much more quickly -- and removes greases, oils, waxes, adhesive residues and the dirt that clings to all of these things. I use it to clean guitars at my repair shop and it's never dissolved anything that I didn't want it to dissolve. Available in the paint section of the hardware store -- except, perhaps, in California.

It will also "dry" vinyl, some. It probably removes some of the plasticizers along with the bad stuff. Any vinyl cleaning, even soap & water, should be followed up with a vinyl treatment, i.e. Armor-All or whatever.
 
Don't know about VM&P brand in particular, but naptha is still sold even in CA. Also known as lighter fluid
grin.gif
 
VM&P is an abbreviation, very often used on the can, that stands for, <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">V</span></span>arnish <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">M</span></span>akers' <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">&</span></span> <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">P</span></span>ainters' naptha. Sometimes it just says "naptha."

Sometime this winter, while visiting the motherland (San Francisco), I went to the local hardware store to get some naptha for a gunk-removal at my folks' house. They didn't have it and gave me some cock-and-bull story about smog. A totally believable story in CA. Since I haven't lived there in 20 years, I couldn't say, but, I believed him. Maybe you have to go to the actual paint store to get it now, or something, but Papenhausen Hardware said they could no longer sell it...

Lighter fluid (aka Ronsonol): That's right. I tell my guitar customers that, if they don't want a whole quart of it from the hardware store, they should go to the smoke shop and get a can of Ronsonol. A "guitar-owner" quantity in the handy flip-nozzle can. Same stuff. Anyone planning a tonneau or top cleaning, is best advised to get the hardware/paint store quantity (and price). One can of Ronsonol -- even the big one -- won't get it.
 
Moseso said:
VM&P is an abbreviation, very often used on the can, that stands for, <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">V</span></span>arnish <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">M</span></span>akers' <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">&</span></span> <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">P</span></span>ainters' naptha. Sometimes it just says "naptha."
Click to expand...
Ah, I see. Didn't know that, Thanks!
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]They didn't have it and gave me some cock-and-bull story about smog. [/QUOTE]There probably are some restrictions about putting up a "chemicals" sign, and reporting how much they sell. But I saw a can of MEK on the shelf at OSH just last week, so I'll bet they have naptha as well.
 
Back
Top