Cragglepuss
New member
Hello, a friend of mine has just bought a 500 Dolcevita with a canvas sunroof - is there anything I should put on the outside of the sunroof to protect it from the elements and the salty atmosphere where I live - thanks.
General Sunroof protection
- Thread starter Cragglepuss
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General Sunroof protection
Piccolo Nero e Bella
Prominent member
If you mean the fabric soft-top of a 500C I'd suggest using a soft-top cleaner and application of water repellent treatment at least annually. If it's parked in the open a half-cover will help but that's inconvenient for a daily driver. 
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Cragglepuss
New member
Very helpful - thank you
Piccolo Nero e Bella
Prominent member
Frequent washing with fresh water will also help but I assume you'd be doing that to the rest of the car anyway due to the salt. One other point; avoid using a pressure washer close to the fabric, especially around the edges and the rear window.
Fabsil tent and clothing proofer is excellent for convertible tops. If your top's very dirty baby bath wash is excellent. Both usefully cheaper and more effective than car products. To guard against fading Aerospace 303 is an excellent product too.
Oh, and Milton fluid is a very good treatment if your roof is suffering from green algae staining. Kills the spores.
Oh, and Milton fluid is a very good treatment if your roof is suffering from green algae staining. Kills the spores.
Piccolo Nero e Bella
Prominent member
Yeah, speaking of that, pay particular attention to the bottom edge of the window where the glass is bonded to the fabric - it's a bad dirt trap.
Cragglepuss
New member
Great idea - thanks
Sorry to be late to this thread. I’d tried everything to clean the beige roof of our 2011 500C. Daft colour of course but it looked lovely when new! Eventually nothing, but nothing could shift the accumulated bird poo residues and tree sap, despite having washed it regularly over the years and used all the recommended products mentioned by others. In the end I had it professionally cleaned and recoloured in a much more sensible black, and re-proofed. I’ve concluded with the blindingly obvious that a car with a fabric roof needs either to be kept in a garage or under a good quality cover - and that the summer months, such as we get, tend to be more troublesome than winter ones. It’s also slightly comforting that dark roofs can end up looking as awful as our once beige one did. Now black it looks pretty smart (Atom Detailing in Sheffield made a very good job of a very challenging refurb - they also repainted the roof ‘spoiler’).
Piccolo Nero e Bella
Prominent member
Mine's a 2012 build with a black roof on a black car. I'd have loved to have the beige roof but it wasn't available on the black car here. In Oz the biggest threat is from the strong UV, especially (but not exclusively) in the summer of course. Fortunately it lives in the garage and and I have a half cover (like below), basically protecting the top and windows, that I can throw over quickly when parked unavoidably in the weather or under trees.
Well worth the investment, especially as you've spent so much on the recolouring. Mine still looks virtually like new.
